I'm a bit rusty
by Beckettsbabe09
Summary: What will happen when three girls from our reality get sent to theirs? Read and find out!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I don't own anything but the original characters...unfortunately.

This fic is also posted on Atlantica.

Danielle Summers sat on her couch with her two best friends, Anita McKlaskey and Genna Smith, watching TV. Even after all this time Sci-Fi Fridays still rocked.

"No John, don't do it! She's evil!" Genna Yelled at the TV.

"NOOOOO!" They all yelled as he kissed her passionately.

"Guys, I wish that was me. I wish we were there." Genna sighed.

"Don't we all." Danielle said. They were all silent as they watched the end of the show.

"Well guys," Anita said as they got up, "goodnight and sweet dreams of Atlantis!" They yawned in agreement and trooped upstairs and into their beds. Downstairs the TV flickered.


	2. Chapter 2

Danielle was never a morning person and all this noise wasn't helping any. 'Wait, noise? Where's all this noise coming from?' She opened her eyes to a sight that shocked her. She wasn't in her room. She didn't know where she was. It looked like some kind of hospital room. She looked over to her left and saw Genna in the next bed and Anita in the one after her. She looked around to if anyone was in the room. She grabbed her pillow and threw it and hit Genna in the face.

"Uhhh, Danny. Just ten more minutes. I can be late today Donell's coming in early."

"Genna get UP!"

"Uhhh, fine." she opened her eyes. "Where the hell are we?"

"We're on Atlantis!" Anita suddenly yelled.

"Shhh, someone will hear!" Suddenly someone walked in.

"Your all awake, great." he smiled. He had a Scottish accent. He looked at Danielle. "Can you tell me your name?" she was too stunned to answer. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. This couldn't be real. There in front of her, asking how SHE was stood Carson Beckett the object of her affections on Atlantis. She came out of her shock. 'Have to play it cool.'

"Uh...Danielle Summers...and yours?

"Oh sorry, I'm Dr. Beckett. Where are you from?"

"Well. I live in Colorado Springs but I'm from West Virginia."

"Earth?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, let me go examine your friends and then I'll just take you to see Dr.Weir."

"Do I need to see another doctor?"

"Different kind of doctor." he chuckled.

After checking them to make sure they could walk he led them to Weir's office. They walked in on an argument.

"There is no possible way that they could be from Earth." Rodney was saying.

"Knock, Knock." Beckett said before bringing them in.

"Oh, hello," Weir said standing up to shake their hands. "I'm Dr. Elizabeth Weir. This is John Sheppard our ranking military officer," he gave a wave," this is Rodney McKay our head scientist," he just smiled," this is Teyla and Ronan our.. uh.. combat experts." Teyla smiled and Ronan didn't do anything.

"Hi, I'm Danielle Summers." she smiled nervously.

"Anita McKlaskey."

"Genna Smith."

John looked at Rodney with an 'I told you so look,' "See Genna has a last name from Earth, they must be from there."

"That doesn't prove anything."

"Why don't you tell us how you got here, as there are no ships here that came from Earth?" Weir requested.

"Danielle you do it please, I can't get my head around it." Genna asked rubbing her head.

"Okay," she turned to Weir, "I'm starting to think, either I'm dreaming or not only are we from Earth, we're also from another reality."

They were stunned. "Well how do you figure that?" Rodney asked in a smart ass way.

"Well, where we're from, this is just a TV show." Silence. "As a matter of fact, we were watching it last night."

"Prove it." Rodney demanded.

"Well, in that episode, Ford wasn't gone yet, John had managed to find a girlfriend from another planet, but to your luck, she was an Ancient who had to leave the instant you found out. Rodney and Carson were the ones to figure it out."

"Anyone could have told you that."

"Okay wanna get personal, you were all once fooled in thinking that you went to Earth. Rodney, you finally got a date with that girl who took in your cat. You were wearing a shirt that said I'm with Genius and pointed up toward you. John had the ability to alter his reality." They were silent and looking at her like she was crazy.

"That's right," Anita finally said, "and Ronan got shot, Carson had to got to the planet and remove the bullet, I can't really remember who put it in him though, maybe Ford on another crazy attempt to get enzyme?"

"John you and Weir dated, yes, I know, everyone knows. It didn't work out. Teyla and Ronan are seeing each other. Ummm, I don't know, I wasn't into the show as much as them, I basically watched it to see...uhh...never mind. I'll just shut up now." Genna looked down in embarrassment.

"Everything they said is true right down to my shirt." Rodney said slowly.

"Well," Weir said sighing," Rodney, try and found out how they got here. John can you give them the tour? I'm a little busy and Teyla and Ronan are going off world."

"Sure." Everyone stood up. "Follow me ladies." he looked back.

"So, since you know about Atlantis, where do you want to go first?"

"We wanna see the gate!" Anita said excitedly.

"Okay, to the gate room."

Danielle stood in front of the gate thinking. Thinking about how, not ten hours earlier, they had been watching this on TV. About how it was real, in some other reality from her own. She had given it thought years ago, but gave it up. Suddenly the gate activated, bringing her out of her thoughts. They ran to side, out of the way. As she watched a team come through she realized that it wasn't a dream. This was really happening to them. They were on Atlantis.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, where to next?" John asked looking over at the three silent figures. They seemed to be stunned. Who wouldn't be?

"Is there a way to see the city, I mean like the outside of it?" Danielle finally asked, taking her eyes away from the gate to look at him.

"We could take a jumper."

"Really?" Genna looked over at him to see if he was being sarcastic. He seemed sincere.

"Yeah. Come on."

"Oh, we're up high. R-r-really high." Danielle stuttered as she looked out of the windshield of Jumper 1. They were about a hundred feet above the top spire of the city. It may have been up high, but she had to admit. It was spectacular.

"It's beautiful." Genna whispered.

"Way better than I imagined it to be." Anita said, looking at the others. They flew around the city a few more times, and then they headed for the mainland. John parked the jumper and got up.

"Now, ladies, for test number one." He smiled at their look of confusion. "You," he pointed at Genna, "are first."

"What do I have to do?" she looked a little nervous.

"Start up the jumper." he said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"But, you have to have the gene for that."

"Exactly," he smiled, "this will make it easier on Beckett. He won't have to do any blood work." he gave a nod. "Go on, it won't bite." She just shook her head, got up and sat in the driver's seat. She put her hands on the console. Nothing happened.

"I don't have it." she sounded a little disappointed.

"You have to think about it. The less of the gene you have, the harder it is to make it work. Try again." She looked at him like he was crazy.

"Fine." she tried again, this time with success. When the console glowed blue she jumped up and clapped. "Yay! I've got it! Wait, how do I have it? I'm from a different reality."

"Well," Danielle began.

"Great," Anita whispered to Genna." No you've got her started."

"Since the theory is that there are an infinite number of different realities for every choice you make, we could have never found the Stargate in our's. Or maybe the Ancient's took it with them or maybe it was destroyed, or maybe there wasn't even one there, oh may-"

"Maybe someone should dig it up and put in you large mouth. There would be a fifty- fifty chance that it would shut you up." Anita interrupted. They all laughed.

"Let me guess," John said looking at Danielle, "you are a scientist."

"Solar and Stellar Astrophysicist to be exact."

"Right. Anita?

"Archeologist."

"Last, but most certainly not lest, Genna?"

"Paleontologist, but my second degree is in combat and flight." He looked really surprised.

"Military?"

"No, it was more exciting than digging up bones. Kind of fun to kick someone's butt for a grade!"

"Don't I know. Now, back to the task at hand. Anita, it's your turn." She walked up to the console and put her hands on it. After a minute or two, it came to life. She just turned around to face them, a smug smile on her face.

"I knew I could do it."

"Congratulations." Danielle looked at John. "Is it my turn now?"

"Yes, give it a go." She placed her hands on it and it clicked on almost instantly. She just turned around and stuck her tongue out at Anita.

"Very mature Danny, very mature."

On the way back to Atlantis, John decided to test their reflexes and give them a crash course in Jumper driving. They were about a thousand or so feet in the air when he got up from his seat and went to sit in the back. There wasn't anybody driving.

Anita looked at him like he was a madman. He'd left her up front all alone.

"John, whatcha doin'?"

"Taking a break." They were decelerating - fast.

"Aren't you gonna drive?"

"No. you take a shot at it."

"WHAT?"

"The ocean's pretty close don't you think?"

"Fine." She grabbed the controls. She tried but couldn't get it to pull up.

"Genna!" she yelled over her shoulder.

"Coming!" She ran up to the front and grabbed the controls. It took about three seconds for her to figure them out. She pulled them up and kicked Anita out of the driver's seat. She drove them for about ten more minutes before John had to take over again.

They had to undergo a full medical examination when they got back. This, unfortunately, meant a billion questions. Beckett was the one doing Danielle's examination. She gratefully noted that he wasn't as boring as the doctor that was doing Anita's examination.

"What's you full name?"

"Danielle Aurora Summers." He looked up from his clipboard.

"Aurora?"

"Yes. Don't poke fun. My mom loved fairly tales. Next question."

"Okay, age?"

"Twenty-eight."

"Any surgeries or broken bones?"

"I had my tonsils taken out when I was three and I broke my left arm when I was twelve, Other than those nothing." The questions went on and on. Carson dutifully noting everything on his clipboard. When they were finished up they were shown to their quarters and where the dining hall was. They were told that they could roam, just not to get into anyone's way. They were followed by a constant guard though. After awhile of walking they ended up in McKay's lab. Anita decided that she'd catch up with them later, she claimed that she wanted to see if he'd found out how they got there. They just shook their heads and kept walking. Anita peeked in the door to see Rodney looking at some kind of ancient machine. It was displaying some kind of holographic message written in ancient. He had his brow furrowed and was muttering. He looked up and jumped, startled.

"Don't sneak up on me like that would you?"

"What do you got there?"

"Not really sure. I think it might be the reason that you three are here, Anita is it?"

"Yes. Why do you think it's behind this?"

"Because I don't know what it does." She almost laughed, but on second thought, kept it to herself. She herself had, on occasion, made this kind of judgment.

"That doesn't sound like you at all. You're Rodney McKay, Head scientist of Atlantis. You know all and fear all."

"Oh thank..wait. What did you say?" She could hardly keep a straight face.

"That you know all."

"No, after that."

"You fear all. I was trying to see if you were actually paying attention to me. You passed."

"Huh. Well of course I was listening. So what are you?"

"Human. You?" He couldn't help but laugh.

"I mean your job. What do you do?"

"Oh, I'm an Archeologist."

"Really? Have you been on many digs?"

"Tons. Back in my reality I found a Mayan temple."

"That's cool I guess."

"The cool part is that I found it in Egypt."

"That's weird." He looked down and started pushing buttons on his keypad. Something caught Anita's eye.

"Uh, Rodney? Was that button blinking before?" He looked up sharply.

"No." he tried to figure out what was going on, but as much as his ego hated to admit it, he hadn't a clue. He kept typing things in on his keypad. "It looks like it's admitting energy waves of some sort."

"Any clue as to what kind?"

"They're almost like the ones that admit from the jumpers. More like what admits from the Stargate though. I think that it opened a wormhole to let you two in."

"Okay, we're already here. What's happening now?"

"I did the same thing before you three arrived. Maybe someone else is coming."

"Hmmm, maybe it's from our reality. I wonder who it is."

They were to soon find out.


	4. Chapter 4

After all the waiting they finally found out who it was. Or, rather, what. It was a box. They had brought it to the lab to see if it was a trick of some kind, but it was just a box.

When they opened it they discovered that it was full of pictures and home videos. Rodney reached over and pulled out a picture of some girls, standing in a room. They were facing the wall, but their faces were toward the camera. They were covered in clay, each of them sporting a hand print on their butts. It looked like they were having a good time.

Anita looked over his shoulder and gasped. "Oh my god. That's us."

This caught him off guard.

"This is you three." he looked at her and laughed.

"Oh, I remember that day." Danielle smiled, "We had pottery class at the café. Genna started the fight. You remember?" she looked at Genna.

"Yeah, those were the days. Lets look at all the rest of this stuff; we can watch the videos later."

They sat down there in the lab, everybody joining in. They laughed at the times the pictures brought back. Times they had forgotten. The times before work and the stress of the real life.

After they had looked at all of the pictures they took the videos to a place that had the Atlantis version of a television. The first one was of their last day of their high school before they had to consolidate with the rest of the county. They couldn't believe how long ago it was, and now how far away from it all they were.

The next one was a taped version of one of their sleepovers.

_**"Danielle, tell the camera what you plan on being when you get out of school?" Anita said behind the camera.**_

_**"I plan on going to more school. I'm going to get a PhD in Astrophysics. I'm going to go to Yale and prove my dad wrong."**_

_**"Genna?"**_

_**"I'm going to be a Paleontologist. Don't know where I'm going, but I'm gonna do great. How about you Anita." she took the camera and aimed it at her.**_

**_"Well and Archeologist obviously. Then I'm going to get recognized but the U.S. Air Force, sent to Cheyenne Mountain to work with Daniel, date Skaara, refer both of you to the program and live happily ever after. The End." They all laughed until their sides hurt. Danielle actually fell off of the bed she was sitting on._**

_**"Amen" she said picking herself up off of the floor.**_

_**"What if we don't end up at the SGC, what if we end up on Atlantis? What would you do then?"**_

_**"That obvious. I would be the most kick as Archeologist there. We'd get there, I'd discover an ancient outpost and get ten ZPMs, I marry-"**_

Anita pushed the stop button. There was no way she was going to let anyone see that. Especially HIM. She heard loud protests.

"Hey, Anita no fair! You can't turn it off!" Genna yelled.

"Oh come on! Think about what I was about to say and what you said after that." Genna thought back and realized what exactly THAT was.

"Right, better not. Not yet anyway." Danielle looked over at her and raised her eyebrows, realized what she meant and nodded her head.

The guys were puzzled and intrigued at the same time. Rodney looked down at his watch and announced that it was time for lunch. The all filed down to the commons area to talk about some things over lunch. Once they were all seated the questioning began.

"So," John began, "we've gone over what your professions are and the basics of your personal information. What we don't know is exactly how you got here or why the box followed you."

"Speaking of the box, why do you think it came here too? I mean, what's its purpose?" Rodney questioned before shoving a forkful of food in his mouth.

"I'm not sure, being a paleontologist and all. I only know that I was wishing that I had proof. Some way to prove to you guys that we're legit."

"Me too." Danielle agreed. "Bigger question. Until we find a way to get back, what do we do around here? I could do lab work if you needed me too."

"I could do reference and research. Stuff like that." Anita offered.

"You really don't have anything for me to do." Genna shrugged.

"You could help if we need backup. You said you can fight, right?" John looked up from his plate.

"Yeah, I guess I could do that. I'm a bit rusty. Haven't been mugged lately." They just looked at her. "Kidding guys, just kidding."


	5. Chapter 5

Three months had gone by after the day the box came. They each had gotten a job and taken on oath of service for Elizabeth. They were official members of Atlantis now.

Danielle had been doing some paperwork and managed to get a cut. Not one of the tiny ones that sting for hours, this page had managed to get her all down her arm. From mid-arm to her elbow. Not only was it ten times the size, it was ten times the pain. She decided to go to the infirmary for a big band-aid or something.

She walked in and the place was almost empty. Carson was in his office doing, take a guess, paperwork. She knocked and went in.

"Carson my report bit me!"

"What do you mean?" he asked in that Scottish accent of his.

She held up her arm to show him the now bleeding cut. "I was writing my report on the new ancient do-hicky and it scratched me! Can you fix it for me please?"

He looked at her in disbelivement. "That is a paper cut?"

"Yes and it's bleeding! You're a wonderful doctor; you can help me can't you?"

"Yes, of course I can. All you need is some germ spray and a bandage and you'll be good to go." he stood up. "Follow me into my office."

She looked around. "Carson, this is your office."

He chuckled. "Yes, it is. I meant the infirmary."

She blushed and mumbled. "Oh, right."

Once they were in the room she sat down on one of the beds. He went into the back to get the items he needed. As he sprayed it on he decided that it was too quiet.

"So it's been three months and you're still doing paperwork?"

"Yes." she sighed. "I could do more but I don't think everyone fully trusts us. I get why and all, but like you said, it's been three months. Don't get the wrong idea, up until today I loved paper, but now I'm afraid we'll have to be mortal enemies. I'll have to get a new job."

He couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, well maybe Dr. McKay will let you get his coffee."

"Uh, I'd rather go three rounds with the paper. Not to mention the fact that he probably thinks that I'll put poison in it."

"Not Rodney. He won't think twice before taking a drink, don't ever doubt it."

"I'd like to see that."

"All finished. You're free to go."

She looked down at her arm. "Really? Can't you just say that... ummm.. you've just found out that I'm allergic or something?"

"I'm afraid not. Now run along. As much as I'd like to talk, I've got a ton of paper work of my own to do."


	6. Chapter 6

After Genna took that crash course in How to Drive a Jumper 101 she decided to try her best against Teyla. This, however, was a bad idea. She had been training with her for over two months and she still couldn't get Teyla down. Teyla, on the other hand, had no problem knocking her over.

As he would possibly need her in the field, John had to be there for a few of the trainings. This made her even more on edge. Sure she managed to get a few shot in, but it was very embarrassing to have John see her get knocked on her respective ass.

"Don't worry so much about it," Teyla said as she picked Genna up off of the floor, again. "Colonel Sheppard was just as unskilled when he first started, and he's only slightly better now. Yesterday he managed to hit my arm twice."

"Hey," he yelled indignantly. "I'm much better than you give me credit for. I hit you three times."

Both of the women laughed. "Okay," Teyla put down her sticks. "I'm going to let you two spar for awhile. I'd like to see how this turns out. It might be fairer if you have a chance to hit your opponent." she threw a pair of the sticks at John.

Genna didn't really know what to do. Sure, she'd fight him. She just didn't want to hit him. They walked to the center of the room. They stood in first position. He threw a hit at her. She couldn't help but grin. It seemed that he had forgotten the first of hand to hand combat, or in this case stick to stick.

She blocked his blow and threw one just below his left arm. He managed to block it but this was a sign of war. If she wanted to fight, he'd fight. They started a wild frenzy of strikes and blocks. She dropped down on a knee and tried to knock his feet out from under him. He jumped up, but barely missed it. He landed with his feet slightly apart.

Finally, an opening for her. She distracted him by throwing a hit toward his head. She stuck her foot between his legs and jerked it left. He fell to the ground with a thud. Before he realized what had happened she had her knee on his chest and her sticks across his neck. He had to admit, she was good. Better than he thought she would be.

"I have to have you!" He said looking at her.

She blushed. "Okay John, but Teyla's still here" she tried to keep a straight face but it was extremely hard.

This time it was his turn to blush. "I meant for the backup team, maybe even for an off world team."

"Really? Do you think I could do that?"

"Hey, if McKay can do it, so can you."

She smiled. For her, it was all coming into place. She had a job to look forward to now. Thankfully it wasn't horrible, like Danielle's. Hell, she even got the rare chance to make the colonel blush. The days just kept getting better as they went by.


	7. Chapter 7

Anita looked down at the translation and sighed. It had some traits similar to Latin and Celtic. Neither of which did she know very much about. She mainly worked with Egyptian and Mayan. How in the hell did the Ancients come up with this? And how in the hell can Freddie, the person working with her, make it so boring?

"They seem to be trying to make a point." he finished, obviously proud of himself.

"Freddie, why would they write it if they didn't have a point to make? Better yet, what is the point?" He just stared at her like she was stupid or something. She hated when people did that. "What's the point Freddie? After all, this is why you woke me up at three in the morning, without coffee I might add, and then kept me here for three hours, trying to explain it to me. Not to mention that I still don't have coffee."

"W-well. Umm.. I don't really know what the point is." Before he had even finished the sentence she was gathering up her stuff. "What are you doing?"

"Freddie, I haven't had sleep for two days. When I finally get to sleep, you wake me up. It very hazardous to YOUR health for me to stay here. VERY." with that she left.

She couldn't believe his nerve. It's going to be all his fault if she's late in the morning. She was so busy ranting on about him in her head that she didn't notice as some stepped around the corner. She walked headlong into Rodney. They both fell to the ground and their papers went everywhere.

"Damnit!" Why did everything happen to her? Rodney looked up from his spot on the floor. She looked as tired as he did.

"Anita, what are you doing out so late, or early?" She mumbled something about sleep, Freddie, ass-kicking and coffee. She mentioned coffee several times. He came to the conclusion that she wasn't a morning person. "Okay then, why are you on the South wing? I thought your quarters were on the West?"

"Great, that's just great! Now, on top of it all, I'm lost. I will kill Freddie and the transporter both before the day begins." she stood up and sighed. It'd take them at least an half an hour to sort through all of the papers. As they sorted, they talked.

"So, just what did Freddie do?"

"He woke me up at three this morning to tell me, in a three hour lecture, that in the message they're trying to prove something. I haven't slept for two days because I was working on that damned translation and when I finally get the chance, he wakes me up. He didn't even get me coffee!" Rodney knew how frustrated she was. He had gone for days without sleep too. It seemed that no one on the base had been sleeping well. Especially those who were working on the device that Sheppard's team had found on K4J-993. They assumed that it was a weapon, but couldn't figure it out. They depend on the very text Anita was trying to figure out.

He suddenly felt guilty. It was his fault she wasn't sleeping. He had pushed for the translators to pick up the pace. Wait, he wasn't supposed to feel guilty. He had made countless others sleep deprived. Why did he feel guilty now?

"So, what are you doing here so late?"

"Oh, I was just coming to check on the generators."

"This late?"

"Yes, there's nothing else to do."

She laughed. "You could sleep. I've heard that it's very nice."

"Yes, I've heard that too."They were finally finished. "Well, I'll see you in about five hours. Sleep till then."

"Bye Rodney"

"Bye."

"Hey, Anita Get up." someone was pounding on her door. Damn them to depths of hell. She got up and opened the door. There stood Rodney. He looked really excited.

"Whd ya want?" she mumbled, pulling on her robe.

"Freddie figured it out. He wants both of us down there ASAP." She turned around. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find my shoes." He grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room.

"We don't have time. Here," he shoved a cup in her hands. "This should wake you up." It was coffee. Apparently her coffee rant had stuck. They raced down to his office.

"Well, "Rodney said as he stood beside the table." What is it?"

Freddie was so excited. "Well, it's something I've never seen before"

"Yes."

"It's a cooking device. Cool, huh?" Anita smiled as Rodney put his head in his hands. All of that non-sleep gone to waste. Joy.


	8. Chapter 8

The days went by too slowly. Danielle had been offered a position as a temporary scientist on an off-world team. If all went well she might be offered a permanent position. She had awaited the day anxiously. Only in her wildest dreams had she ever gone through the gate. Even then, it was just a dream that she forgot once she woke up.

It was a small planet with welcoming natives. The team that previously visited had discovered some strange energy readings coming from an alter a small ways from the town. They couldn't decipher the writing on the alter so Anita got to come to try and decipher it. Genna was currently off-world pulling a rescue mission. Too bad they all couldn't go together.

It was about an hour into the mission before they came to a problem. Danielle couldn't figure the alter out. She had to go back to the gate and ask for Rodney to come and help her. She suspected that it held a Z-PM within it; she just couldn't get it out or learn what it was there for. He arrived looking more than slightly annoyed. As they walked up to the alter she explained her theory.

He sat down his equipment and did some tests. Danielle smiled inwardly at the perplexed look that finally came over his face. Not even the great Rodney could figure this one out. He repeated the tests again. He came to the same conclusions: nothing. It seemed that everyone jumped when Anita suddenly yelled "AHA!"

"What it so important that you had to give me heart attack to announce it?" Rodney snapped.

"Well, if I'm translating this right, it does have a Z-PM."

"How do we get it out?"

"We don't."

"Why not?" he practically yelled.

"Because, it powers their irrigation systems. We can't take it. It'll topple their world upside down."

"Damn." he muttered and started to pick up his equipment.

"There's something else."

"Yes?"

"This land doesn't belong to the natives we met. It belongs to the tribe that they are at war with."

"We better move then." Ben, one of the airmen that was on the mission, announced. It seemed that these were magic words, for at that moment an arrow came from the woods and hit Anita in the shoulder. "RUN!"

"ANITA!" Danielle ran over to her. "Let's get out of here!"

"Don't forget my notes!" Danielle couldn't help but roll her eyes. Here Anita was bleeding and she was worried abut her notes. Danielle scooped them up and helped Anita run. The men that had shot her were following behind them. They were gaining on them. The team had to dive into a grove of trees off of the path until the men went by. This seemed to take forever

Once they had finally passed, the team decided to take a breather. Rodney was trying to examine Anita's wound. She complained because he was getting blood on her notes.

"You're so stupid."

"What?"

"You are S-T-U-P-S-T-E-D!"

"I'm stupsted?" She laughed.

"You know what I meant. I'm just worried. I mean, you're shot!"

"I hate to interrupt this lovely spat, but we best be getting Dr. McKlaskey back to the Gate."


	9. Chapter 9

Danielle walked into the infirmary. It had been a few hours since they had gotten back. Beckett had shooed them away from Anita saying that it needed surgery and that they had to hurry. The nurse estimated that it would be about an hour after it was preformed that she'd be able to have visitors. She peeked around the corner to see Anita and discovered that she had been beaten there, by Rodney no less. He seemed to just to be watching her sleep. Danielle slipped quietly away... almost. She ran right into Carson as he was coming to check on Anita.

"Sorry!" she laughed. Thank goodness he hadn't been holding anything.

"It's quite alright. What were you doing here anyway?"

"Anita's first time being shot off-world. I came to congratulate her." she joked. "What else? Hey did you notice who's in there with her?"

"Rodney?"

"Yeah. How long has he been there?"

"Since she came out of surgery. She hasn't even woken up. He's just been sitting there."

"Think he likes her?"

"Aye, I do. Don't tell him I said it though. He'll try to shred me to pieces." he winked.

"Try?" she laughed.

"Try." With that he walked away to tend to his other patients.

Danielle walked to quarters, deep in thought. Anita's wish was slowly coming true. Since they'd started watching Atlantis on TV, she'd always liked Rodney. Maybe this was a good sign for Genna and her. Or maybe it was just sheer luck on Anita's part. She hoped that it was the first one.

John was waiting at her door when she got there. He told her that, because there was an accident on the mission, everyone had to make a report. Great! She'd just gotten away from those evil things. As she said her good-byes she had a brilliant idea.

"Hey, Sheppard?" she yelled, catching up to him as he walked down the hallway.

"Yeah?"

"Since you're military you should know about Genna right? She'd five hours over due."

"Really? I didn't know. I'll ask Weir about it and then get back to you."

"Okay. Thanks." A brilliant plan was slowly taking form in her mind. She walked into her room with a smile that bordered on evil. This was going to be fun.

Danielle walked into the gate room, relieved to see Genna standing there. She'd come up with a brilliant plan to give Anita a hand, without her knowing it.

"Oh, Genna!" she yelled in her best sing-song voice. "My long lost buddy back from her adventure in space ... were any of the natives cute?" It took almost all of her control trying to keep a straight face as Genna blushed and nodded.

As soon as Genna walked into her room, she was met by Danielle, who was so excited to see her that she instantly knew something was up. She sat down o he bed and asked what was making her so excited.

"Anita got shot!" she practically yelled.

"What? When? How, did you two have a guard?" she didn't get why Danielle was so excited. Their best friend had been shot after all.

"None of that matters." This baffled Genna even more. Didn't matter? She was about to make a smart comment when Danielle put a hand over her mouth. "She had surgery. Guess who was there from the second she got out?"

"I don't know. I'm guessing it was your sanity because you've obviously lost it."

"Rodney!"

"Nooo.. I'm Genna. That just proves it, you have lost it."

"No, Genna. Rodney was there." Genna had to admit, that was surprising. After all, they were just the girls from the alternate reality. Not to be trusted, even with coffee. "Carson even said that he thinks that Rodney likes Anita!"

"That's wonderful! I can't believe it!"

"I know. The problem is Rodney's problem with women. He might not ask her out. He might be scared."

"Who wouldn't?" she laughed. "Anita has the biggest attitude of all of the women on base. She's even got the ego to go with it. Hell, I'd be intimidated."

"Exactly, that's why we have to give him a little more encouragement, but we have to discreet." Genna liked the idea. It seemed like fun. She'd always wanted to play matchmaker. It ought to be easy, considering how alike they were. It was perfect.

"I'm in, what's the plan?"

"Well, we have to mention that she has a crush on one of the scientists. Maybe near him in the commissary. That should give him a little more confidence; it'll narrow down the competition in his eyes. Now, I need your help thinking up ideas for the other phases."

"Okay, phase one is easy. What's phase two?"

"More fun. Creating situations where they'd have to be alone. The other part is to create situations where they'd be uncomfortable. Funny uncomfortable and UNCOMFORTABLE situations, you know?"

"I know. Phase three?"

"Hopefully it won't take 'till three. If it does we confront him. Tell him that we know he likes her and to give it a shot. Sound good?"

"Very. It's well thought out. How long did it take you?"

"You were five hours overdue when it came to me so... three hours."

Genna laughed and shook her head. "That has to be a record for you."

"Sure is."

"This is going to be fun."

An outsider would have observed that they shared the same evil smile.


	10. Chapter 10

Danielle watched Rodney's every move he made when he was around Anita. So far, she'd found out that he didn't listen to half of the things she says when she babbles on an on about some translation. He seemed to like to watch her talk. He likes to watch her when she's working, too.

Danielle and Genna decided that these were definitely signs. Phase one would take place that afternoon when Rodney took a lunch break.

Rodney normally didn't eavesdrop, but this was a desperate occasion. He needed to know what kinds of things Anita liked. Who better to learn this from but her best friends?

He casually sat down at the seat behind them and started eating. Five minutes went by with nothing of use coming from the two. Although he'd have to check up, see if Lt. Hayes was really seeing the cutie from the infirmary. Those two sure did gossip a lot. Finally he heard those magic words.

"Hey, Danny, did you hear who Anita has a crush on?"

"No! Spill it!"

"That one scientist. You know who I'm talking about."

"Oh, I know. Really, him?"

He couldn't believe his ears. She liked someone. And a scientist to boot. This would make it easier to beat the pulp out of him. Anita was his! Wait, he could be scientist. That would be ironic. He jumped up and went to his lab; he had to sort out his thoughts.

When he arrived, he began rambling...out loud.

"I don't have a chance with her.. she likes some other scientist. Or maybe I'm the scientist they were talking about. Nah, i was sitting right there, why talk about it. They saw you, that's why they didn't say any names! No, still doesn't play out..."

"Ummm... McKay? Are you alright?" John looked at him with a hint of amusement.

"I'm fine Colonel. Just having a -"

"Fight with yourself? What about?"

"Some girl. I heard someone say that she liked a scientist. That could be me, but nine times out of ten.. it's not."

"Has to be more than some girl if your this tore up about it. Who is she?" Rodney mumbled his answer. "Pardon?"

"Anita, okay!"

"Really? I thought you didn't trust them."

"I don't trust Danielle."

"Why? Because she's your only female competition?"

"NOOOO! I just think she's hiding something, that's all."

"Sure McKay. Look, I'll help you with your investigation, alright? Find out if it's you she likes."

"Really? Thanks John."

Genna watched Rodney rush out of the room. Either he really had to go to the bathroom or he'd heard them.

"Phase one is complete." Danielle smiled. All was going as planned. She said good-bye to Genna and started toward her room. This was going to work. Now she just had to find out if the someone Genna had her eye on was interested. She'd have to get Anita's help to do that plan though.

She was surprised to find a note lying on her bed.

**_Dear Danielle,_**

_**I've decided to let you know that I love your smile and that it brightens up my day when I see it. I can't wait until I see it tomorrow.**_

_**With Love,**_

**_Your Secret Admirer_**

Well, she hadn't been expecting that. She couldn't help but wonder who it was. Someone on Atlantis liked her. She had to admit though; she liked the sound of it.

Needless to say, she went to bed with a smile on her face.

A/N: Please Review!


	11. Chapter 11

"McKay, how in the hell did I manage to get stuck in the same transporter as you?" Anita grumbled as she plopped down on the floor.

"It is not my fault that it malfunctioned! Or that you haven't had any coffee yet!" He paced the floor. He didn't understand. Every thing had been fine the night before. In fact he'd taken this very one back to his quarters last night. He tried to explain this to Anita but found out instead that she had too moods: before coffee and after coffee. The former being a very dangerous time.

"Well, can you at least fix it from in here?" It's not as if she didn't enjoy being stuck with Rodney, it's just that she really wanted to get out and get some coffee. On a normal day, after she'd had some coffee, she would've welcomed the opportunity to be stuck with him. After all, she did have a crush on him.

"I can try again, but it won't help. We can't do anything from in here. Someone will find out that the transporters broke and they'll get Zelminka right on it."

"Zelenka, you mean?" she laughed.

"That's what I said." He sat down beside her. This, he decided, would be a perfect opportunity to get to know her better. "So," he looked over at her. "What's your favorite color?" Oh no, did he just ask that? That's not what he wanted to say. He wanted to say something more…mature.

"Uh," Did he just ask her that? He must be really bored. "Green, yours?"

"Blue. Um… So how did you all meet?"

"Danielle, Genna, and me?"

"Yeah."

"We were in the eighth grade; we all had the misfortune to have a friend that was a big bitch. Danielle and she got into this big fight, well she more of the fighting. Rumor spreading, you know? Danielle distanced herself from that girl and started to hang out with Genna more. I didn't know the whole story so I hung out with that girl. I soon learned why she didn't have many friends. I stopped hanging out with her and went with Genna and Danielle instead. We've all been friends ever since then."

"Sounds exciting."

"It was. We got into all kinds of mischief together." This gave him the perfect opening into her past.

"Yeah? What kind?"

"Well, there was this one time…" They reminisced about the past and talked about their hoped for the future.

Genna and Danielle watched the two of them on the monitor. It looked as though phase two would work. This was, however, just the first step: The icebreaker.

Danielle looked down at her watch and jumped up. "I gotta go."

"Where?"

"I've got an appointment with Carson. Routine checkup, no biggie." She heard Genna yell something about a dog and a bike as she was leaving. Danielle wasn't sure she wanted to know what was going on. As she walked down the bustling hallway she heard someone call her name. She turned around to see none other than Ben Gates the airman that had saved them on that planet.

"Hey ya, Captain." She smiled as he walked up to her.

"Please, call me Ben, Doctor"

"Okay Ben, call me Danielle." He nodded. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, I just wanted to check in and make sure that you're all right. Make sure that you didn't have any injuries form that dive into the bushes."

"Thanks for your concern, but I'm fine. Only a scratch on my arm. As a matter of fact I'm on my way to have my checkup now."

"Oh, I'm sorry for holding you up."

"Bye Ben."

"Bye, see you later."

She walked into the infirmary and took a seat on one of the beds to wait for Carson. As she waited she looked around. She was beginning to feel as though she spent more time than normal in there.

"Hello." Carson said, sneaking up behind her. She jumped and spun around. Once she saw who it was they started to laugh.

"You scared the hell out of me Carson."

"Jumpy are we? Shall we begin?"

"Yes to both. Although I have no idea why I'm so jumpy."

"Did you sleep well?" She stuck out her arm so he could check her blood pressure.

"Yes, better than normal actually."

"You're blood pressure is normal. Did anything happen yesterday?"

"No not really. I studied a doodad all day. Oh wait, I got a note from a secret admirer!" He raised his eyebrows.

"Really?" he looked amused.

"Yes, and I know what you're thinking. It's not corny. It's sweet!"

"If you say so. Maybe that's what got you on edge, although I doubt it. Was there anything else?"

"Not yesterday. I guess preparing for phase two wore me out." She mumbled.

"Phase two?"

"It's a plan to get Rodney and Anita together. This morning, we waited until they were in the transporter and then pulled the crystal."

"So they're stuck in there together?" He seemed impressed. "How long have they been in there?"

"Around two hours, maybe three. They seemed to be getting along when I left."

"Great job. So more about his note…"

They talked for the rest of her appointment. She told him what it had said and what she hoped would become of this admirer. Little did either of them know how these little chats would change their lives in more ways than one.

……………………………………………………

A/N: Thanks so much for all of the reviews! I really appreciate them! Please review more, I live for them!


	12. Chapter 12

John watched her from the corner of the room. He had to give it to her, she was beautiful. He loved to watch her talk. He loved the sound of her laugh. He loved to watch her, period. _Much more of this, Sheppard and you'll be more like a stalker._ He had to find out if she liked him too. Much more of wondering would surly drive him insane. Coming out of his corner, he walked up to her.

"Hey." She looked up from her work, startled. Her breath caught when she saw who it was. John. The man of her dreams for so many years. More so now that he was real and not just a TV character. She had to give it to the man, he was hot. _Yeah, like you have a chance with him. Half of the women on this base are after him. Not to mention that he'd probably want someone from his reality._

"Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing much, I was just wondering…" _Come on Sheppard just ask her already! You've waited long enough for this, just ask her!_ "… if Anita likes Rodney?"

"Oh," She hadn't expected that. _What were you expecting? For him to confess his undying love for you? Dream on. _"why do you want to know?"

"I'm a good friend. Rodney likes her and I'm trying to help him."

"I already knew that he liked her."

"Okay. Does she like him back?"

"If she did, I wouldn't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because you'd tell him. That'd ruin any plans she had."

"She has plans?"

"No but we do. Three phases designed for them to discover it themselves."

"That's actually pretty brilliant. What phase are they in now?"

"They're in the middle of phase two. We hope it won't make it to three."

"Why what's three?"

"We confront him. Or maybe, now that we have a definite from him, we confront both of them."

"Sounds good, need any help?"

"Sure, meet us in the empty room near the infirmary in four hours."

"Sounds good. I'll be on my way then."

"Bye John."

"See ya Genna."

A/N: Thank you all for the wonderful reviews! I appreciate them! Sorry if this chapter is a little bit short. Please review!


	13. Chapter 13

"So, what do you think it says?" Rodney looked over Anita's shoulder at the translation that she was working on.

"It says that a cocky astrophysicist is going to annoy the translator to death before she ever gets to the second paragraph." Danielle couldn't help but crack a smile at this. It was true; he'd been pestering her about that translation for the past three days.

"Okay then, Danielle get out. You're annoying Anita." He looked dead serious. That was it. Danielle and Anita both burst out in to a long fit of giggles. Danielle tried but couldn't stop. When she flipped open her laptop, however, her laughter suddenly died. There, lying on the keyboard was yet another note.

"How in the hell does he keep getting these notes in the oddest places? The last one was inside of my coffee mug. It's slightly creepy." She laid it down beside her and began to work on the diagnostic she'd brought up. Rodney and Anita just stared at her. She looked up. "What?"

"Aren't you going to open it?" Anita asked, almost bouncing in anticipation.

"Yes, just not right now."

"Why not?"

"Because, Rodney the Almighty told me I had to have this finished by this afternoon. I don't have time to get distracted."

"I changed my mind. I need it by in the morning." Rodney seemed just as excited as Anita.

"Okay then." She reached over, picked it up, and opened it. A small pink flower fell out. She picked it up and looked at it. It hadn't even started to wither. The note hadn't been in her laptop for very long.

"Well, what does it say?" Anita whined. Danielle shook her head and began to read:

_Dearest Danielle,_

_To me, you are like this flower. Even after being stuck in a tight spot for a while, you come out looking as beautiful and perfect as before. This is yet another thing that I love about you. My days drag along until I see you. I can't wait until our next meeting._

_Love,_

_You're Secret Admirer _

"Awwww, that's so sweet!" Anita exclaimed, reaching for the flower.

"You don't think that it's a tad bit corny?" Rodney inquired.

"No! If a man takes the time to write love letters to a girl, it's sweet. Now, if he'd used some stupid line like 'Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?' that's corny. Agree Danielle?"

Danielle, however, didn't hear the question. She was thinking about this person. Who would take their time to write her a note? Her, of all people. Who was it? She thought back to all of the times she'd received the notes and to the people she'd crossed afterward. Not one person stood out more than once. A very loud "DANIELLE AURORA!" brought her back to reality

"Huh?"

"You are hopeless. Isn't a line really corny?"

"Depends, which line is it?"

"The falling from heaven one."

"Ewww, very corny. Thank goodness I've only had it used on me once."

"It helps, having girls around. You get to learn the major NoNos." Rodney smiled and shook his head. It was true, especially in Anita's case. He loved spending time with her, especially when he got to learn what not to do. He certainly didn't want to make a fool of himself.

Danielle looked down at her watch and sighed. It really was time for Genna to get back from her mission. She decided to go check in with Weir. As she approached Weir's office , John emerged from it. He waved and walked up to her.

"So, did you get into trouble?"

"No, why would you think that?"

"Well, you're on way to Weir's office."

"I was coming to see why Genna's late."

"Oh, the team got caught up in a discussion with the locals about trade and it's running over."

"Oh? And how do you know this?"

"I just asked Weir."

"Why?" She smiled devilishly.

"Well…I…uh… She's part of the team…I was checking on the team, not her. It's not that I don't care. I do. Just not-"

"Save it John. So, do you plan on asking her out?"

"Well, I went to do it the other day, but I chickened out."

"Why?"

"Well, what if she doesn't like me? What if I say the wrong thing? It isn't normal for me to be this nervous. I can usually walk up to a girl and ask her out, with out even blinking."

"I say go for it. Don't be scared. If you say something wrong, forget about it. It's no biggie. I'm sure she'll forgive you. And about the nervous thing, it's because you really like her, that's all."

"You think? Well, I'll try. I've got to think up a plan, I'll see you later."

"Bye." She watched him go, thinking that Genna's life was falling into place quite nicely. She had the dream job and she was going to get her dream guy. Come to think of it, all of their lives had gotten better. Danielle herself had been miserable at her job back in their reality. Now she had her dream job and had a potential suitor to boot. She thought about this on her way back to Rodney's lab.

As she reached the door, Anita came out, grinning from ear to ear. She grabbed Danielle's arm and lead her down the corridor to an empty room. When they arrived, she started jumping up and down and dancing around in circles. Danielle was amused and slightly worried. She considered taking her to Carson immediately, but decided to ask her what it was all about first.

"RODNEYASKEDMEOUT!" she practically screamed. Well, if Danielle had suspected something, this wasn't it. She started jumping around with Genna. She finally came to her senses and calmed down.

"How?"

"Well, we'd been joking around and having fun all afternoon. I mean, you were there, you saw. Well, as I was leaving her stammered something I couldn't understand. I turned around and asked him what it was and he said 'Well, I…uh… I was wondering... that is...will you have dinner with me Friday?' I couldn't believe it. I stood there somewhat stunned; I finally managed to say yes. Danielle, it's coming true. Well for me at least."

"Genna too. I went to ask Weir why she was overdue and stumbled into John as he was coming out of her office. He asked me why I was there. When I told him why, her said that Genna had been held up in a meeting with the natives. When asked why he knew he said something about being worried about the whole team and then something else before he admitted that he liked her. He's going to get up the courage to ask her out."

"All we've got to do is wait for you're secret admirer to reveal himself and ask you out, then it's all down hill from there."

"It would seem so." Danielle gave a small smile. If only it were as simple as that.

A/N: A/N: I'm SOOO sorry for the wait. I was having some technical problems. Please review, and for those of you who have, thank you SO much. Anyway, I decided to show you what our trio look like, well for the most part. They're dollz. If you wanna check them out here's the link : http/ 


	14. Chapter 14

Genna walked into her room, relieved to be back from her over long mission. She reached her dresser, pulled out a clean set of clothes, and preceded to the bathroom to take a shower.

She mulled over the news she'd received not long ago with a smile. Rodney had asked Anita out. It was a miracle. She'd been afraid that they'd have to resort to phase three. Her thoughts began to think on the same track that Danielle's had been not too long ago. Anita was the first. She hoped that Danielle and she would follow not far behind. Danielle would probably be next. She had that secret admirer after her. Genna herself didn't even know if John liked her back.

This train of thought continued even after she was out of the shower and blowing her hair dry. Thank goodness for Danielle. She'd managed to make a version of a hair dryer that worked even better than those they had back in her reality. She walked out of the bathroom to discover a long package on her bed. She picked it up and opened it. Inside were the most beautiful flowers she'd ever seen. They were a deep purple with light pink stripes on some of the petals. They were almost like a rose, but had some tulip like qualities to it.

"Who in the world put these here?" she wondered aloud.

"That would be me." She turned around to see John stepping out of the shadows near her door. Her heart stopped. "You see, I like you, a lot. I figured that some flowers would be a good way to say it. I also wanted to ask you to dinner on Friday night. What do you say?" She just stared at him. She couldn't say anything. She'd only dreamed of this happening. Hell, she'd even dreamed in her dreams about this happening. He stared at her with a worried look on his face.

"What?" she managed to choke out.

"Will you have dinner with me on Friday?"

"Okay, I was just making sure I heard you right."

"And?"

"Do you realize, that I never thought that this was going to happen? I mean, I've only hoped, but I never thought you'd like me."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I'm not from your reality. Besides, there are plenty of women on this base that are after you. Hell, there's even a pool about who you'll ask out first."

"You're not serious?" He laughed. He couldn't believe that there was a pool!

"Yes I am. The biggest bet was between Weir and Della."

"That blonde nurse?" He made a face.

"Yes."

"So, can I take what you first said as a yes?"

"Defiantly." She smiled.

She ran down the hallway to Danielle's room. It was around midnight, but she didn't care. She burst in her room to find her sound asleep. Genna ran and jumped on her yelling, "GET UP! HURRY!" Danielle awoke to see Genna running from her room. She yelled. "Meet me in Anita's room! HURRY!"

She drug herself out of bed and down to Anita's room just in time to see her get jumped on. Anita grumbled and pulled the covers over her head. "Please get up! Danielle's in here too. I've got something to tell you!"

"Fine! Couldn't it wait 'till morning?"

"No!" Genna was bouncing on the bed, out of excitement or to keep Anita awake; Danielle couldn't decide which. "I went to my room to take a shower, after we talked."

"That's SO exciting! Now leave me alone!" Anita grumbled. Danielle and Genna both giggled.

"That's not all. I got out, got dressed, and blow dried my hair. When I came out of the bathroom, I noticed a box lying on my bed." At this Anita perked up. Danielle walked over and sat on the bed to listen closer. "Inside were the most beautiful flowers that I've ever seen in my life!" She reached over and pulled a box out from beside the bed. Danielle hadn't even noticed her carrying it. When she opened it they gasped. She was right. The flowers were beautiful.

"I asked out loud 'Who in the world put these here?' Then he stepped out of the shadows."

"WHO?" Anita almost yelled.

"John." At this they all screamed. She had her dream man! "Anyway, anyway, he asked me to dinner on Friday, and I was too stunned to answer. I finally told him that I never thought that he liked me back. Then I told him about the pool."

"How did he take that?" Danielle laughed.

"He made a face when I said that the top choices were Weir and Della." Anita and Danielle were thrown into a fit of giggles.

"I finally said yes. We sat and talked for around thirty minutes before he left. It was great!"

"I can't believe it! You're wish came true, you got John!" Anita exclaimed. This threw them all into another fit of giggles and a full description of what John and her had talked about.

John smiled to himself as he listened to the shouts and giggles coming from Anita's bedroom. He walked away to go waked Rodney up.


	15. Chapter 15

"Everybody! Everybody, quiet down! Are McKay and Sheppard here?"

"Present." Rodney said looking slightly smug.

"Okay everybody! Colonel, please step into the middle of the crowd and announce who you asked out." He walked to the center of the crowd, giving them a good once over. Around a quarter of Atlantis had shown up.

"I asked Genna Smith!" He smiled as he heard the gasps and curses. Apparently not many people had considered Genna.

"Wow, that one threw me for a loop." The airman who was in charge of the pool whispered. "Okay!" He yelled. "Let's see if anyone guessed that one." He looked down the list. He was about to give up when a name caught his eye. "The winner of the pool is…Danielle Summers!"

"Wait," John exclaimed. "When did she place that bet?"

"Quite a few months ago sir."

"Okay then. I guess she wins. If she's here that is." He looked around just as the said person was stepping out of the crowd.

"I wouldn't miss this. So," she turned to the airman. "Where are my winnings?" The officer pointed to a rather large box sitting beside him. "Thank you everyone." She took the box to the edge of the crowd.

"Okay, now for the pool for Dr. McKay." Zelenka stepped forward, dragging a box behind him. "Rodney, step forward and announce who you picked."

"I asked out Anita McKlaskey." This news was met with the same reaction as John's.

"I didn't see that one." Zelenka grumbled as he looked at the records. "I'll be... The winner is Danielle Summers." This brought on a larger reaction then either John or Rodney's announcements.

"Wait, this has to be a set-up. How could she win twice, isn't there a rule against that?" a voice from the crowed yelled.

"Unfortunately, there's not a rule against it."

"Wait, when did she place the bet?" John asked, thinking that she may have placed it when he told her that Rodney had a thing for Anita.

"Same day that she place the bet on you."

"How…?" He looked over at Danielle who was slowly dragging her second box of winnings toward the edge of the crowd. She gave him an evil smile.

"You see, I placed this bet first, on the day Anita got shot. I had seen Rodney sitting with her, he'd been there for a few hours, and she wasn't even conscious. I took that as a sign and placed my bet. While I was doing that, they told me about your pool. So, being a good, hopeful friend, I put one in for Genna."

"Dumb luck." Zelenka smiled.

"On John's bet, yes. I'll be needing help getting these boxes to my room, can somebody help me?" A few airmen volunteered, and after they'd carried it to her room, she gave them each a coffee ration for all of their help. She carefully stored the boxes in the closet and went to find Anita and Genna.

It was Friday. Anita couldn't believe that it had come this fast. She had five hours to get ready and she had no idea how she was going to do it. She was having a full-blown panic attack when Danielle decided to check in on her.

"I don't know what to wear!" She threw another shirt across the room. "I mean, I don't know where we're going, so I don't know how to dress! Should I wear shorts or pants? How about a dress or maybe a skirt?"

"Don't panic, I have the answers. I thought you'd go all nuts on me, so I asked him what he planed on doing. He's taking you for a picnic dinner out on the main land."

"Really?" She looked out from her spot inside her closet. "Awww, that's so sweet! But that doesn't answer my question."

"Well, I'd wear some shorts with a spaghetti strap shirt."

"Won't I get cold?"

"That's kind of the point." She gave Anita a wicked smile. "That way, he'll offer his coat, duh!"

"Ingenious, why didn't I think of that?" She grabbed the suggested clothes from her closet and made her way toward the bathroom. "Hey Danielle, thanks."

"What kind of friend would I be if I didn't help you during one of your freak outs? I'm going to go check on Genna. Have fun."

Genna, however, wasn't having a huge freak out. Just a minor one. She had everything picked out; she was just having a hard time comprehending the fact that John had asked her out on a date.

"Genna, this happened almost five days ago. Are you telling me that you're just now realizing it?"

"Kind of. I mean I got that he asked me out, it's just that he asked ME out. Me. I'm a paleontologist from another reality. Do you remember when we were in high school? We picked our guys from the show. Well, my guy asked me out! Wouldn't that weird you out just slightly?"

"Now that you brought it up, yeah, it would weird me out a bit. That's not the point though. He asked you out. YOU. The paleontologist from another reality. The girl he spent months drooling over but never had the guts to go for. He likes you, just like you dreamed back then." Danielle handed Genna the makeshift curling iron from her dresser. Genna took it and smiled, maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.


	16. Chapter 16

"So, where are you planning on taking Genna?" Rodney asked, fidgeting slightly. It was another hour before he was to meet Anita, but he was already nervous.

"I was going to take her up to a cool place I found in the tallest spire of Atlantis. It's a room where the walls are all glass. It's beautiful up there. You can see the whole city and it has a great view of the…wow." Rodney turned to see what John was staring at. Genna was coming down the stairs.

"I'll just be leaving then. Good luck." All John could do was nod his head. He was still staring at her. She looked beautiful. She was in a light blue tank top and shorts. She had pulled her hair up in a ponytail, but it was curly. He finally came back to reality and walked over to her.

"You look wonderful." She blushed.

"Thanks, you don't look half bad yourself."

"Are you ready?" She nodded. He offered his arm and they were on their way.

"Can I open them now?" Genna laughed. John was leading her to the place where they were going to have dinner, but she wasn't allowed to open her eyes.

"Almost. Just step over this way. Now!" She opened her eyes and gasped. She was standing in a room made of glass. In the middle of the room, there was a table set up. It was beautiful; it had a lace tablecloth, a vase of those purple flowers, and a candle in the middle.

"It's beautiful John! Thank you." She looked at him and smiled.

"It was nothing. Now," he walked over and pulled her chair out. She just giggled and sat down. ", for dinner. Tonight is special, so we have real food. The Athosians wonderful cooks and they agreed to help me out." They settled down to eat. John asked about her past, where she had come from and such, the required questions.

"Well, I lived in Tennessee, but I moved to West Virginia in the sixth grade."

"What did you do once you got you're degree?"

"I taught at a college in Colorado. When I wasn't out on a dig, that is."

"Digs? Where did you go?" He seemed genuinely interested, so she told him.

"Some small countries in South America mainly. I did some research in Africa when I was straight out of college though. What about you, why did you go into the Air Force?"

"My dad was in the Air Force and I wanted to do him proud. I didn't do a very good job though."

"The past is the past. If he could see you now."

"Yeah, if he could…"

The continued to talk about the past, both the bad and good aspects of it. It wasn't until they got to sports talk that they really started getting into it. They discussed how different the turnouts of some of the more legendary games were.

Genna had been on dates before, but is one was by far the best one. She loved his sense of humor and his outlook on life. She learned things about his past that they didn't talk about on the show. She learned who the real John Sheppard was and realized that she liked this one even more.

When the date was over, he walked her back to her room. He realized that night that they had a lot in common, including sports. As they reached her door, he turned to face her.

"Do you want to do this again some time?"

"Absolutely." She gave him a huge smile.

"How about Saturday?"

"Sounds wonderful!" He bent down and gave he a kiss on the cheek. She watched him walk away, the smile never dropping from her face.

As she crawled into bed, she began to realize that maybe her dream really was coming true.


	17. Chapter 17

After he'd left John, Rodney had gone to Zelenka to talk. He was REALLY nervous. He thought that if he babbled enough to someone before the date, he wouldn't babble so much when he was talking to Anita.

"Rodney, there is little to worry about." Radek assured him. He thought that Rodney was quite funny when he was babbling, but he decided to be a good friend and help him calm down. "If she said yes when you asked her out then she must like you."

"What if she said yes because she didn't have anything better to do? What if she just likes me for my looks?" Radek had to cover up a laugh.

"That is highly unlikely. Look, I have seen you two around each other. It is obvious that she likes you a lot. There is no reason for you to worry."

"But what if I screw up? What if I use one of the lines that are on the NO list?"

"The what list?" He had no idea what Rodney was talking about. May be he was going loony from lack of oxygen.

"The list of lines not to use because they're corny."

"You made a list?" Yep, he was going bonkers.

"I didn't, they did."

"Who are they?"

"Anita and Danielle did. They were talking about it one day when were working on a project. It's a long list. What if I forget and say one of them?"

"I am sure she will forgive you." He looked down at his watch. "You may want to leave now or you'll be late." Rodney jumped up.

"Thanks Zelenka."

"You're welcome." Rodney rushed out of the room to meet his date.

_Oh no, I bet I'm late! _Rodney dashed down the hall, to the entrance of the jumper bay. He stood by the door and glanced down at his watch. He was ten minutes early. Zelenka hadn't meant for him to run. As he waited for Anita to arrive, he went over the plan in his head. They were interrupted minutes later, however, by Anita's arrival.

"Hey, Rodney!" She waved and walked up.

"Hi, you look..." He gave her a once over. She was wearing the clothes that Danielle had suggested. Her hair was up in a half bun, half ponytail, the ends of it curled. He thought that she looked stunning. " wow… you look stunning."

"Thank you. You look great."

"Shall we go?" He opened the door and led her over to Jumper 1. He opened the hatch and helped her inside.

As they took off, it hit her that she was in a jumper, on her way to a date with Rodney McKay. The thought scared and excited her at the same time. Little did she know that Rodney's thoughts were running along the same track.

"So," He looked over at her. "Have you ever been in a jumper before?"

"Yeah, I did on my first day. John took us for a tour of the city. He drove us out to the mainland to see if we had the gene."

"How did he do that?"

"He had us turn the jumper on. He said that it would be easier on Carson if he didn't have to do that bit of blood work."

"Probably would be easier on him. We're here! Close your eyes." She did as she was told. He took her by the hand, leading her out of the jumper and to the place where he'd set up the picnic. "Okay, you can open your eyes now." She opened them and gave him a huge smile.

"Rodney, it's wonderful!" He'd picked a spot on the beach where they could see the stars. There was a big blanket stretched across the sand. On it sat a picnic basket, a lantern, and a bouquet of flowers. As they sat down he handed her the flowers.

"They're beautiful, thank you. For all of this, thanks."

"You're welcome."

After they had finished eating, they took turns telling funny stories about their pasts. Evening slowly faded into night as they laughed away the hours. Before long, they were lying on their backs, trying to find some of the constellations that Teyla had told them about, without much luck.

Two hours after they'd began star watching, Rodney walked Anita back to her room. When they reached her door, she turned to face him.

"Thank you so much for this Rodney. I had a wonderful time."

"No, thank you. I had a great time, best date I've ever been on."

"Make that both of us."

"Care to go on a second one next Friday?"

"I'd love to. Good night Rodney." She leaned in and gave him a small kiss. Before he realized what had happened, it was over. She gave him a smile. "Good night."

"Good night." He smiled as the door shut behind her. She had kissed him! Sure, he didn't really respond, but she kissed him! Next time he would be more prepared.

He hardly noticed where he was going and was surprised when he realized that he'd went to John's room instead. He went to knock, but decided better of it; he would let it wait until morning.

Anita closed the door and took a deep breath. She couldn't believe that she'd done that. She giggled as she realized that she must have put him into a state of shock. She waited a good five minutes to semi-calm her nerves, then rushed off to Danielle's room. However, when she burst into the room she was met by silence, Danielle was gone. Feeling slightly disappointed, she headed off to her room.

Oh well, she would just let Danielle's anticipation for all of the details set for the night. She wondered back to her room, and after an hour fight, finally fell asleep.


	18. Chapter 18

Carson looked over the first-aid kit he had put together with a sigh. '_Only ten more to go_.' He thought with a sigh. The off world teams needed to be better prepared if a medical emergency took place. It had been a slow night.

All of the teams were back and the rest of the medical staff had taken the rest of the afternoon off. It was for this reason that he nearly jumped out of his pants when he heard a happy, high pitched "Hi ya Carson!" from behind him.

"Danielle! What the bloody hell are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?"

"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you." He gave her a look, clearly saying that he knew better. "Okay, so I did."

"Why are you here?" He took out another box.

"Anita and Genna have dates. On my list of people who talk to me, you're right under them."

"I don't know whether to take that as a complement or not."

"Take it. After all, you fall under my best friends in the world, but above everyone else. What are YOU doing?"

"Just packing first-aid kits."

"Why are you doing it? Isn't that someone else's job?"

"Yes, but since all of the teams are back, everyone took off. Why aren't you in the lab? I thought a new artifact was brought in."

"I, Danielle Aurora Summers, am not allowed within five feet of the artifact." She recited, just as Rodney had made her do over and over before he left.

"Ah, I see. Why aren't you talking with Captain Gates?"

"Ben? Why would I be talking to him?"

"Rumor has it that you have a "Thing"."

"What!" She couldn't believe this. She'd only talked to the guy around five times.

"I take it by your reaction that it's not true."

"No. Geez, I've only talked to the guy a handful of times."

"Yet, you're on first name terms with him."

"Yes, it was the polite thing to do. He offered his name so I did the same."

"If you say so." This was met with a small smack on his arm

"Hey, do you need help?" He said that he didn't but just then, the kit he'd been working on fell from the table. She giggled. "I'll take that as a yes."

"All done!" Danielle declared happily, sitting the last kit down. It'd taken them awhile, but they'd finally finished.

"Now I have to….huh, I don't have anything to do." Carson looked mildly surprised.

"I take it that you don't get much down time?"

"Oh, every once and a while."

"How often?"

"A few days almost every month."

"Almost every month? Carson, you'll go nuts without a break!" she half-yelled.

"You sound like my mother." He looked over his shoulder at her.

"Well, is that a good thing or a bad one?"

"My mother is very sweet, but can be very bossy." At her look he quickly added, "But in a good way."

"Fine. Oh, by the way, I have a gift for you."

"Oh yeah, what is it?"

"You're not going to get it if you don't say something nice about me."

"Oh really? What if I don't want your gift."

"Oh, believe me, you want this. You would tap dance in a pink bikini for this."

"Fine then. You are extremely smart."

"I knew that. Tell me something I don't know." She almost laughed at the look in his face.

"Well, your hair is lovely."

"Thank you Carson. I think this gift is so wonderful that it deserves one more." He gave her a thoughtful look.

"Well, you have an amazing personality and sense of humor."

"I think that's enough compliments to earn your gift. Here you go." She pulled a package from her laptop bag (He hadn't even noticed that she had it) and handed it to him. He opened it and had to keep from squealing like a girl. Inside were five tea rations. She was right; he would tap dance in a bikini for these.

"Thank you Danielle! I was almost out. I would've gone crazy until they got back with more. Where did you get these?"

"I won both pools, didn't you hear?"

"No." he gave her an astonished look. "How in the hell did you manage that?"

"Well, the pool on John was pure luck; Rodney's was more common sense. There's more where those came from if you run low. I like tea and all, but with the lack of sleep I've been getting, I'm in love with coffee." He laughed and started to fix a cup.

As he was making it she managed to find a few chairs to pull up.

"So, have you heard from your Secret admirer?"

"As a matter of fact I have. Around a week ago, the letter ended up in my laptop. How it got there is beyond me."

"What did it say?"

"Here, see for yourself." She reached down in her bag and pulled out the letter. He gave her a questioning look, but decided against saying anything.

"It's sweet."

"It's very sweet. Changing the subject, I know you came from Scotland, but I've never been there. What's it like?"

"Ah, it's beautiful there. You really should try to take a trip there someday."

They spent the rest of the night talking about their roots and the past. Time didn't seem to matter, until Danielle looked at her watch. She had to be up for work in five hours. She decided that she'd better go or they'd never be able to get her up.

She looked in on Genna and Anita as she passed; both of them were fast asleep. As she climbed into bed, she realized that she'd be hearing about these dates for at least a week. She groaned at the thought and prayed that it'd only last a few days.

A/N: Please review! For those of you who have, I can't thank you enough!


	19. Chapter 19

"Danielle! Danielle wake up!" Anita impatiently yelled as she knocked on her door. She heard a yelp and a loud thump from inside. Slightly alarmed, she let herself in, only to find an half asleep, and really annoyed Danielle, laying in a tangle of covers on the floor. One look at each other and they burst into laughter.

"Am I interrupting something?" They looked toward the door to find Ben standing there, looking more than a little amused. Danielle jumped up from the floor, only to fall back down, because her feet were impossibly tangled in the sheet. This sent Anita into another fit of laughter, Ben with her.

"Yeah, my pain is something to laugh about. Thanks you guys!" She set to work on her feet and after a minute of failure, Anita sighed and tried to help her. Nobody but Ben noticed as Genna silently slipped into the room and crept up behind Anita. She grabbed Anita's sides and began to tickle her. Anita yelped and jerked around to see the offender.

"Genna…Marie…Get the…HELL…off of ...me."

"Not 'till you come to my room to hear all of the details! Then you have to spill!"

"NO! No spilling until I am out of these sheets!"

Ben watched all of this with a grin on his face. He'd never met three women so hyper and loud in the morning. He was about to leave them to it when Danielle remembered that he was standing there.

"Ben! Cam you help me?" She had to scoot away as the other two almost rolled on top of her. He went to her and started to work on her feet. He'd just assumed that they couldn't get it undone because they were weak girls. He found out however, this was not the case.

"How did you manage this?"

"Don't know I was asleep. Hey, why are you here?"

"Right. He handed her a folder.

"Thanks." She was about to open it when she heard him give a triumphant "Yes!"

"Doubly thanks!" He helped her up and said his goodbyes. Danielle looked down at her crazy friends. Anita had Genna down now. "Hey you guys, I've got to take a shower and go to the lab. I'll meet you two at lunch. No spilling until then okay?"

"Why can't you do it now?" Anita stopped her attack on Genna and looked up.

"Because your annoying boyfriend is working me to death, that's why."

"Say it again."

"Your boyfriend is working me to death."

"MY BOYFRIEND! Hahaha!" Danielle and Genna gave her a look that clearly said, 'What are you on?'

"Okay I've gotta go, I'll see you two at lunch!" Genna hurried from the room. Anita left after her, still grinning like a mad woman. Danielle just shook her head, glad that her friends had found the happiness they'd been hoping for.

Danielle walked into the lab to find Rodney sitting at his desk, staring off into space.

"Good morning lover-boy." This seemed to snap him back to reality.

"Hello Danielle. Have you talked to Anita yet?"

"Briefly." He got this goofy look on his face. "But not about last night. I woke up late, or rather she woke me up late. She scared me half to death. I ended up falling out of the bed. I won't get details 'till lunch."

"Oh okay." He started to work on his laptop, but stopped every few minutes and just stared off into space.

"Would you like to tell me how you think it went?" She guessed this is what was bothering him.

"I think it went wonderful! I just don't know if she does."

"Well, she asked me why I had to go t o work this early and I told her that her boyfriend was working me to death. She asked me to repeat it and then yelled MY BOYFRIEND! Hahaha! I would take that as a good sign." Amazingly, he seemed relieved.

Danielle just shook her head and took out the file Ben had brought her. Inside she found the report she'd requested for reference. She flipped through it carefully, not wanting to miss anything. She finally reached the page she'd been looking for, only to find a small envelope tucked in with the page. She smiled as she recognized the handwriting.

_Dear Danielle,_

_I have a gift for you. The catch is that you have to find it. You first clue is where the sun and the moon meet._

_Love,_

_Your Secret Admirer_

She had to laugh at this. He was sending her on a scavenger hunt. 'Where the sun and the moon meet'. Where would that be?

"Hey Rodney, where do the sun and the moon meet?"

"I'm not supposed to help you."

"What do you mean? Do you know who this is?"

"No, but word was passed around today not to help you."

"No fair. Oh well, more fun for me." She began to think. It could be the sea, but how in the world would he put a clue on the sea. Then it hit her. In Weir's office, there was a bronze wall ornament, it had the sun and the moon crossing each other.

"Hah! I've got it!" she yelled triumphantly, startling Rodney.

"So, where is it?"

"It's in Weir's office."

"Why are you still here?"

"Because I work here."

"I mean why haven't you gone to get the next clue?"

"Don't you need my help?"

"No, I figured it out yesterday before I took Anita out.". She jumped up out of her chair and ran out the door, yelling a goodbye over her shoulder.

She reached Elizabeth's office in record timing. As she stepped in, Elizabeth gave her a wide smile and pointed to the ornament. Danielle walked over and plucked the envelope from it.

_Danielle,_

_She has black hair, a PhD, a month for a middle name, and your next clue._

_Love,_

_Your Secret Admirer_

Great, there are at least twenty girls with black hair. Maybe eight with PhD. Danielle knew of three with months for middle names. Suddenly it hit her. She said her thanks to Weir and left.

She walked up behind Anita and covered her eyes.

"So, Anita June, I hear you have something for me."

"Yep I sure do." She grinned as she handed Danielle the envelope.

"You don't happen to know who's behind this do you?"

" Nope, I'm just the messenger."

_Danielle,_

_You have two clues after this one. Your next clue is a little cliché. Think Shrek._

_Love,_

_Your Secret Admirer _

What in the hell did he mean 'Think Shrek.' "Anita, what on Shrek is cliché?"

"You mean besides the fact that it's a fairy tale gone all funny? Nothing really."

"That doesn't help me much." She began to rack her brain, remembering the movie. Finally, the intro began to replay itself inside her brain. '…_She was locked away in the highest room in the tallest tower…' _Aha! She had it. Only two more clues left.


	20. Chapter 20

Danielle breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the door. She'd been walking up these steps for at lest fifteen minutes. She'd been so excited that she forgot about using the transporter.

She opened the door and gasped. The room was beautiful. It was the room John had taken Genna to the night before. An envelope was lying in the middle of the floor. She picked it up and began to read.

_Danielle,_

_Keep it up, you're almost there! Since you watched the show, I hope you will know this. Your next clue lies with Hail Mary._

_Love,_

_Your Secret Admirer_

She giggled at this. This clue was too easy. Grinning she remembered the episode clearly. The team was sitting around, watching a recorded football game. John had been explaining why he had brought it, which in turn, lead him to explain what a Hail Mary was to Teyla.

She'd figured out the clue, now all she had to do was find John. As she wondered around Atlantis looking for him, she decided that this wasn't as easy at had first seemed. He could be anywhere.

She stopped by the gate room, just in time to see a team coming through. She watched silently, after all of this time she still couldn't believe that they were there. The sight of the gate shutting off brought her back to her senses. She could be sentimental later, right now she had a Colonel to find.

She found him sitting patently at a table in the lunchroom. He looked at her in fake annoyance.

"Sure did take you long enough." She hit him on the shoulder and took the envelope.

"It's not as if you made it very easy. I checked this place twice." She heard him chuckle lightly, but she was too immersed in the clue to pay any attention.

_Dear Danielle,_

_Finally, you've come to the end of the bread crumb trail. You will find your gift in a busy place. If you were to ever disappear as suddenly as you came into my life, this is where they would have to take me. However, they could never mend my broken heart and soul._

_Love,_

_Your Secret Admirer_

"Awww, it so sweet!" She exclaimed, forgetting where she was. A few people looked at her out of curiosity, but she didn't pay any attention. She was to busy trying to figure out the clue. If she hadn't been thinking about how sweet it was, she might've got it a minute sooner. However, at that moment Genna and Anita burst into the room, laughing at something Anita had said. Danielle saw Genna blush and realized that John must still be sitting there. As the made it to the table, Genna and John said their hellos, but were quickly interrupted as Anita shrieked "Danielle Summers! Haven't you figure out where the gift is?"

"Guilty, but this is my last clue." Anita grabbed it out of her hand to read it. She had a smile on her face as she passed it off to Genna, who in turn, let out an "AWWW!"

"So why are you still here?" John asked.

"What do you mean?"

"It obvious where he wants you to go." Danielle thought about the note and realized where he'd been talking about. She said a quick goodbye before rushing off to the infirmary.

Danielle stood at the door to the infirmary, mentally calming herself. She walked in taking in the sight before her. It was the same as the night before, except that there was some nurses bustling around. She caught the eye of the nurse nearest her and held up the envelope she was holding. The nurse grinned and pointed toward the other end of the infirmary.

She rounded the corner and gasped. There, on an empty bed, sat a bouquet of pink flowers in a beautiful vase. She picked them up, looking at the vase. It looked like stained glass. As she smelled the flowers, she noticed a small package lying on the bed.

She picked it up and opened it. Inside laid a beautiful silver locket. She picked it up to look. It was engraved with her name, surrounded by vines and flowers. It was absolutely stunning.

She opened it, and to her surprise, it started playing a melody. She recognized it instantly as "Beautiful Dreamer". How could he have known that it was her favorite? At the bottom of the box laid another envelope.

_Dear Danielle,_

_I hope you like the locket. It took me awhile to get it from Earth. I heard down the grapevine that this is your favorite song. It reminds me of you, always dreaming. I hope to see you soon._

_All my love,_

_Your Secret Admirer_

She was almost in tears by now. Now she knew that this couldn't be some kind of joke. It'd taken a lot of time and probably a pretty penny to get this locket. She took in a shaky breath. After putting on the locket and picking up the vase, she sat off to find her friends.

He watched as she opened the gift. He let out a breath he hadn't even noticed that he'd been holding when he saw the look on her face. She loved it.

He watched her face as she read the note. Apparently he'd written the right things, she was almost in tears by this point. When he saw this he knew that he couldn't keep up the charade much longer. He wanted her to know who'd given her the locket, and who'd come to like her very much. He needed to know if she'd like him once she knew who he really was. He needed to know.


	21. Chapter 21

"So, spill! I want all of the details, both of you!" Danielle looked at her friends expectantly.

"Sure, but Genna goes first." Anita poked Genna as she said this.

"Okay. He took me to this beautiful room. The walls were made completely of glass! It was so wonderful; I could see the whole ocean! He'd set a table and brought me more flowers like the ones he'd first given me. We even had real food! We sat and talked about a lot of stuff. Turns out he has the same views on sports that I do. Well for the most part he does."

"So… what happened after the date was over?" Anita looked at Genna and wiggled her eyebrows. This sent them all into hysterics.

"No! Nothing happened! He was a complete gentleman. He walked me to my room and we said our goodbyes."

"Goodbyes as in…." Danielle looked at her with an evil grin.

"Goodbye as in he asked me out for Saturday and kissed me-"

Danielle and Anita let out squeals of delight

"-on the cheek." They let out twin sighs of disappointment. "It was really sweet! I think that it was the best date that I've ever been on!"

"That is sweet! Anita it's your turn."

"Okay. Well I met Rodney at the Jumper bay. He flew us out to the mainland for a beach picnic! It was beautiful; we could see tons of stars. He brought me flowers too. We told funny stories and then tried to find some constellations. We didn't have much luck, but we made up our own after a while. When we said our goodbyes, though, he asked me out for Friday. Then I kissed him!"

It took a second or two before the other two really grasped what their friend had done. Once they had, all hell broke loose. They started half scolding her and half congratulating her, but they were giggling all of the time. Anita just gave a smile.

"What did he do?" Danielle gasped.

"I put him a state of shock. He didn't do anything! He was still standing there when I said goodnight!"

"So that's why he was so fidgety this morning."

"Huh?" Anita gave her a questioning look.

"Well, he doesn't know if you had a good time last night. I told him that I thought that you did. That might be the reason he had his doubts."

"Hmmm. I'll have to go tell him that I had a great time. So Danielle, it's your turn."

"What do you mean? I didn't have a date."

"No, but you were gone when I got back last night."

"Oh, I went to pester Carson. I gave him five tea rations and helped him pack first-aide kits. Then we talked."

"'Bout what?"

"Well, home and stuff. He mentioned that half the base thinks that Ben and I have a "Thing"."

"Really? You haven't really even spoken to him much."

"That's what I said. He asked about my secret admirer and I let him read the latest note. Well, the one before today's ones."

"By the way, what was the gift?" Danielle unhooked the locket and handed it to Anita.

"It's beautiful!" Anita handed it to Genna, who agreed with her. Genna handed it back to Danielle. Danielle looked down at the locket and opened to hear the melody. Anita and Genna gasped as they heard it.

"Beautiful Dreamer. How did he know?" Genna asked.

"I don't know. It's a perfect gift though. He also got me some flowers in this beautiful vase. I put them in my room though. You guys, I want to know who it is! I have to know!"

They continued talking until lunch was over. Danielle headed of to the lab. Maybe Rodney would have something for her to do anyway.

The week went by faster than anyone had expected. It had been routine on base, no team had come in over due or had run-ins with the Wraith.

Danielle had spent the majority of the week neck deep in work. She mostly ate lunch alone, seeing as Anita and Genna ate with their men. However, she was startled one day from the notes she was going over by someone sitting across from her.

"Hey Carson. What have you been doing?"

"Nothing much. I actually have the day off. You?"

"I've been worked to death. I've been up till three in the morning for four nights in a row."

"Why?"

"Stupid machine. We think it is a kind of advanced shield device. Rodney has been working all of us hard. I don't see why we need it so soon though."

"Sounds like you need a break."

"Yep, my day off was yesterday and I worked right through it."

"Why in the world did you do that?"

"I forgot about it until today."

"I think that calls for you to take the rest of today and half of tomorrow off." He chuckled.

"You know, you're right. The only part is that I have nobody to talk to."

"You could talk to me."

"Cool. So what do you want to talk about?"

"Well, for starters, do you carry those notes around with you everywhere?"

"Well yes. Work is my life right now. I keep going over-"

"No, not those notes. The ones from your secret admirer." He gestured toward her computer bag.

"Oh," she blushed, realizing how silly it sounded. "Well, yes I do. Why?"

"Just wondering. I was going to ask you last weekend, but I decided not to." He then noticed her locket and asked her about it.

"Well, my secret admirer got it for me."

"It's nice." He said, taking a better look.

"It's more than nice. It's absolutely beautiful! I love it! Look at this." She opened it so he could hear the melody.

"That's cool."

"Sure is. He also got me a bouquet of flowers in a beautiful vase."

"Sounds like he likes you."

"I wish I knew who he was! OH NO! What if it's Cavanaugh? I cannot stand him!"

"That would be bad. What if it is him? Would you try to like him or completely ignore the fact?"

"I would try to tolerate him at least. You never know, maybe he just acts like a jerk."

"You can only hope." He laughed. "Well, do you have anybody in particular you're hoping he will be?"

"No, I just hope I find out soon."

"Well," He said, standing up. "What do you want to do today?"

"Hmm. I don't know. I think John has a deck of cards. We can go and get them."

"Sounds great." They spent the rest of the afternoon and well into the night playing cards and telling jokes.

As she crawled into bed that night she wondered if Anita would have a freak out over this date tomorrow.


	22. Chapter 22

Friday afternoon Anita and Radek sat behind a hanging , making their shadow puppets fight. Rodney, however, had his back turned to them, doing his work. Their persistent laughing was starting to annoy him.

"What on Earth are you two doing back there?"

"We're having crazy monkey sex don't look!" Anita yelled.

"What!" He spun around in time to see Anita fall off her stool in hysterical laughter. It was then that he got the joke. He started laughing at his own stupidity.

"I CANNOT believe that you actually fell for that!" Radek choked out between his fits of laughter. Anita tried to agree with him, but couldn't stop laughing.

It was then that Danielle walked in. She took one look at everybody and muttered "Crazies!" She motioned for Anita to follow her out into the hallway.

"So, are you excited about tonight?"

"You have no idea! I can't wait! He asked me if I wanted to leave this afternoon instead of tonight though."

"Why?"

"I have no idea! Anyway we leave in three hours."

"Why aren't you getting ready!" Danielle grabbed her obviously mentally ill friend began to pull her toward the transporter before she remembered something. She told Anita to stay where she was and ran back to the lab.

"Hey Rodney?"

"Yes?"

"Your date tonight. Is it casual or not."

"Casual, why?"

"I need to know so I can give suggestions for clothes. We won't be back, but where do you want her to meet you?"

"Outside of Weir's office. Why aren't you going to be back?"

"She has a date to get ready for!"

"It's not for three hours!"

"Exactly! I can't believe she didn't tell me sooner!" With this rushed out of the lab. Rodney looked at Radek with a astonished look on his face.

"I knew it took girls a long time to get ready but this is ridiculous!"

"Yes it is. Where are you taking her?"

"I got permission from Weir to take her to K3X-956. It's practically an untouched paradise. "

"How did you get Weir to agree to that?"

"I told her that I would go on strike and take the rest of my science team with me. That's why we didn't work Monday."

"I can't believe she agreed with that!"

"Me too."

Anita stood at Weir's office, looking around for Rodney. She was a little early, and getting more nervous by the second. Well, maybe not nervous, more like anxious.

A few minutes later, Rodney walked up the stairs. He smiled as he caught sight of Anita. Her black, shiny hair was down and curled. She wore a purple t-shirt and a pair of shorts. She caught sight of him and smiled.

"So Rodney, why did we meet here?"

"Because having you meet me in the gate room would be too obvious!"

"You're taking me off world? " He nodded his head. "How cool is that!"

"Glad you think so! Let's go."

Anita heard the waterfall before she heard it. As they rounded the bend, she gasped. It was more beautiful than she had expected. It even had a rainbow.

"Rodney! It's wonderful!" He showed her over to a rock that was half in and half out of the water. When they had sat down he pulled out a bottle of wine (or as close to it as it got in the Pegasus galaxy) and two cups from a big basket he had brought along.

"Trying to get me drunk Rodney?" Anita giggled at the look on his face.

"Maybe." He smiled and raised his cup. Anita raised her cup to his and smiled back.

They afternoon passed perfectly. Except when Anita had stood up to stretch and fell into the water. She came up sputtering and flared at a hysterical Rodney. He managed to get his laughter under control long enough to ask her if she was okay. When he bent down to help her out, she pulled him into the water beside of her.

"What was that for?" He asked when he came up.

"That was for laughing at my clumsiness!" She shrieked when he splashed her. This lead to a huge water war that lasted for several minutes.

They spent the rest of the afternoon in the water. In the end, hunger won them over and the got out to eat. It was a delicious meal of the planet's version of chicken and potatoes. As they ate they talked about work and the places they had been in the past.

Before too long, night arrived and they had to head back to Atlantis. Weir gave them a curious stare, seeing as they were both still slightly damp. Anita just smiled and said "I fell!" At this Weir smiled and walked away.

The walk to Anita's room seemed shorter than normal. When they finally reached it, she wished that they hadn't.

"I had a wonderful time today Rodney! Thanks for taking me there. Odds are, if you hadn't taken me there I probably wouldn't have ever seen it."

"Your welcome, the pleasure was mine. Think you would like to this again? I can't next week, but how about the week after that?"

"Sounds great! Goodnight Rodney." To her surprise (and slightly to his) instead of replying, he bent down and kissed her. It took her a second to realize what he done. Once she had, she didn't waste anytime responding. She brought her hands up around his neck and pulled him closer. They stayed this way for a few minutes before he pulled away.

"Goodnight Anita." He smiled at her and walked off. She couldn't believe that had happened. THE Rodney McKay had just kissed HER! She couldn't wait to tell Genna and Danielle the next morning. What the hell, why stop there? Why not tell it to the world!

She decided that galactic announcement would be best, but she was too tired to do it. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

A/N: So…what do you think? Review and tell me! Sepik, here is a little bit of Radek action you suggested!


	23. Chapter 23

Anita didn't get the chance to tell the other two all of the details about the night before. Fate seemed to be stopping her. Well, only if fate's name happened to be Rodney McKay.

It seemed like every time she got around to telling Danielle and Genna what had happened, Rodney would have somebody come get Danielle. Genna didn't want to hear the news without her, so they would decided to meet up at a different time. After the fifth time, Genna suggested that it was intentional.

"I highly doubt that. It's just very inconvenient. Do you want to meet up in another hour?"

"Yes. Come to my room. You guys can help me get ready for my date!"

"That outta be fun!"

"Rodney! Do you realize that that is the fifth time you have interrupted our meeting?" She slapped the desk he was sitting at, causing him to jump and look up at her.

"Really? I have the worst timing." He shook his head. "Oh well."

"Are you doing this on purpose? Is there something you don't want us to find out?" She gave him an evil glare, insinuating that if it happened to be bad, she would personally kick his ass.

"NO! It's just that this is a very important project!" He insisted, pointing toward the project in question.

"Building a Star Wars Lego set is not important!"

"That's not it! It's what we're going to do with the ships!"

"What would that be?" She put her hand on her hip and looked at him with a slightly less evil glare. Slightly.

"We're going to test the new transporting device on them!" She paused to think about it. The device it's self was important. However, the techs hadn't even got to that point yet, they were still working on the Legos. She voiced her thoughts.

"True. But I need your help tweaking it."

"We fixed it the last time you called me back. What happened?"

"A few of the Techs started a fight over who got to build the biggest one. They knocked my desk and it fell off." She sighed and sat down. A few minutes later, a message was delivered, telling her of the next get together. She sighed and looked at her watch. She still had forty-five minutes of hell to endure.

They all sat in Genna's room, Anita was telling about her date (FINALLY!) and the other two were listening.

"When he told me goodnight he kissed me!" Her news was met with squeals of delight.

"He kissed you? Surprising!" Danielle poked her in the arm playfully, only to receive a slightly less playful one in return.

"Very! It was wonderful though. The perfect ending to the perfect date!" She sighed, thinking about it again.

"How sweet! I hope my date goes just as good!" Genna finished brushing her hair and turned toward her friends. Since her hair curled naturally, add her beautiful auburn color and there wasn't much that she couldn't do with it.

Today it hung down naturally, framing her face in the front. She was wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of cut off shorts. (A accident off world had ruined the right pant leg, so she cut them off to make shorts.)

They gave her a big bear hug as she left. She walked to the jumper bay to meet John.

He waited in anticipation. He wanted to make a good impression. He knew that Rodney had already taken Anita to the beach and Genna knew about it. He decided on a different spot than Rodney had. Very few people actually knew about it. It was a little island off the shore of the mainland.

He caught sight of her walking down the hallway. As always, the sight of her astounded him. He noticed her shorts and laughed. He remembered being panicked that day when he saw her come through the gate, one pants leg chewed off by something with red saliva. He had thought that she was hurt and had rushed to her side.

She smiled as she reached him, slightly nervous that he was laughing. She gave him a questioning look and he pointed at her shorts. That was all that needed to be said. They headed off to Jumper 1 and toward their destination.

"John, this is beautiful!" the water at the edge of the beach was crystal clear. She could see all of the strange fish that swam by. He sat out a blanket and they sat down.

"So John, what is your master plan for this date?"

Genna giggled as he gave her a grin and said, "Wait and see." He jumped up and went back to the jumper, bringing back a basket and a bag.

"This," he said, holding up the basket. "is dinner. This however," he held up the bag, "is fun."

"What do you mean by 'fun'?" He pulled the bag open and dumped a bunch of beach toys on the sand. She couldn't help but laugh. It was incredibly simple, but incredibly sweet at the same time.

"How in the world did you convince the Deaudelus to bring these back?"

"I do believe that it was a few of the scientists and group of Marines. The ganged up on a few of the crew. In the end, they brought back more than enough to spare." He sat down beside of her and picked up a long wall shaped mold.

"Bet you that I can make a better castle." She laughed even harder at this. She grabbed the other wall mold.

"You're on."

An hour later Genna let out a triumphant "FINISHED!"

"Took you long enough." She looked behind her to see John standing triumphantly over a beautiful castle. He had finished at least thirty minutes before she had. His castle looked exactly like what you would think a castle would look like back in its hay day. She had to admit, she was impressed.

"Looks good, too bad it can't beat mine." she stepped sideways and he smiled. Her castle was ten times better than his was. It was covered in multi-colored shells and leaves. She had made a real drawbridge and everything. He walked up closer and looked inside of it, only to find that she had a miniature courtyard on the inside.

"All too true. How did you manage to do that in an hour?"

"I'm just good that way. What do you want to do now?" He gave it a moments thought before he replied in a cocky voice.

"I want a rematch."

"Really? Okay, what do you want to build now?"

"You pick this time."

"I can do that. I think we had better step it up a notch. Best modal of Atlantis wins." He gave her this baffled look but quickly accepted the challenge.

Two wins and three losses later Genna was exhausted. They had taken a break during one of the contests to eat dinner and were now looking at the stars. They talked about everything and then again, nothing at all.

"So, did you have a boyfriend back in your reality?" This question caught her off guard. She had expected him to ask, but she had not expected it to be then. She looked over at him and then back at the stars.

"No. He broke it off with me a few days before we came here. He said that I was to into my work and didn't pay enough attention to him. In normal words, I didn't fit into his busy schedule the way he wanted me to. That's okay though, he didn't have much of a sense of humor." She gave a giggle that slowly turned into a laugh. John just smiled.

"What about you? Did you have someone before you came here?"

"No. I didn't want anything serious at the time. So I decided to stay away from the serious ones. The problem was, those were the ones I managed to keep getting myself into. I broke it off because I didn't want her to get the wrong idea." She looked over at him and gave a smile.

"Where does that leave me?" He looked at her, startled.

"We made it to the second date didn't we? I say you have got wonderful odds." she gave him a small kiss on the cheek.

"Good." They quietly decided to end that discussion. They went on to talk of other things well into the night.

It was late by the time that they made it back to Atlantis. It was still busy as always, but just a little less noisy.

They chatted pleasantly as he walked her back to her room. She was having such a good time talking to him that she hardly noticed when they reached her door.

"I had such a great time tonight John. Thanks."

"Your very much welcome. Thank you for coming." He gave her one of his trademark smiles, which happen to be contagious.

"You only need to ask. Goodnight John."

"Goodnight." He leaned down and kissed her. She was so happy that she had to remind herself to kiss him back. She was more than a little disappointed when he pulled away.

"Sweet dreams Genna. See you tomorrow." He walked away toward the transporter. What she could not see however, was that when he was inside, he yelled "YES!"

She shut her door and took a deep breath. He had kissed her. She danced around her room as she got ready for bed. She lay down, but after ten minutes, she realized that she wasn't a bit sleepy.

Jumping up she ran to Danielle's room. She rushed in, and was happy to find that Danielle wasn't sleeping well either. However, she was disappointed upon finding that Danielle refused to get up out of her warm bed.

"DANIELLE! Come on," She pulled the covers off of the bed. Danielle shrieked.

"Give that back you vile, wicked woman!" She jumped up out of the bed and began to chase Genna around the room. She didn't even notice as Genna led her out of her room.

Danielle managed to get a hold of one end of the blanket, not to far from Anita's room. "You let go! It's MINE! PLEASE! I'm cold!"

"No way hosay." She was shocked when Danielle sat on her end of the blanket.

"I'm not going to move until you give me my blanket!" Genna giggled and shook her head. Danielle gave a annoyed "FINE!" but stayed in her spot.

This didn't phase Genna any. She jerked her end of the blanket and began walking down the hallway, dragging Danielle behind her. Danielle gave another shriek as she toppled backwards. When she popped her head, she saw the people who were watching from their doorways, and quickly ducked her head back down.

"Genna Marie you can count on getting your ass kicked when we get... hey where are we going?" Her question was quickly answered when they turned the corner to Anita's room.

They came to a halt just inside of her door. Danielle hopped up and launched herself at Genna, causing them to topple onto Anita's bed. Danielle began to tickle Genna, making her squeal.

"THE HELL?" Came a voice from under the covers. Anita poked her head above her covers to find her two friends have a tickle match on her legs. She gave them a hard push, sending them off the edge of the bed. She smiled as she heard the thumps and groans, and then snuggled back into her covers.

Her comfort was interrupted as she was attacked by the two most annoying tickle monsters in the universe, make that two universes. This, however, woke her up.

"What do you want?" She said stressing the last word.

"I've got details!" Genna announce happily, bouncing on the bed.

"OH! SPILL!"

"Well he took me to the beach..." And so the recounting began. It was met with giggles, shrieks, and sighs. Needless to say, none of them got that much sleep that night.

A/N: I am so sorry for the delay! I was having some computer problems. This is my longest chapter yet! Yay! So what do you think? Review!


	24. Chapter 24

Two months had passed normally. You know, missing team here, wraith attack there. On the upside, it went well for the trio.

Danielle had gotten several more notes from her secret admirer. In one of the last ones, he mentioned that he was slowly gaining the courage to tell her who he was. She had also been assigned to a team! She was ecstatic. After all, she had been off world but this was going to be on a regular basis!

Genna's relationship with John was going well. They had been on several more dates. They were occasionally seen holding hands or kissing. They weren't much for PDA anyway. But that didn't stop the rumor mill from running.

To Genna and Danielle's dismay, Anita and Rodney were now making out in public. John had told them to take it down a notch, but they ignored him. Anita also took these spell where all she would do is sit and talk about Rodney. Ronan unfortunately was present when one of these hit.

"Does she ever stop?" He looked over at Danielle for an answer.

"No. Not once she has started."

"I bet you a Jell-O ration that I can snap her out of it."

"Does it involve bodily harm to her or me?" She gave him a worried look. To tell you the truth, she was afraid that he was going to punch her.

"No."

"You're on. By the way, I like orange the best." He beckoned Ben to come over.

"Yes?" he then noticed Anita and groaned. "Do I have to listen to this?"

"No." Ronan replied. "I think I have a way to shut her up."

"I don't think it will work, no matter what it is. WE have a Jell-O ration on it. You want to join in?"

"What are you going to do?"

"Well if you let me I'm going to shoot you." Danielle expected Ben to decline but he nodded his head.

"I bet that it snaps her out of it. Just make sure that thing is set to stun."

"Ronan did I ever tell you that Rodney called me stunning?" Anita didn't even wait for an answer before continuing her rant.

"Ready?" Ronan drew his weapon.

"Yep." Ben braced himself for impact and Ronan shot. After Ben fell to the ground, Ronan turned to Anita.

"It was SO sweet. I cannot believe he would take me off world! Anyway-"

Ronan shook his head sadly. He could not believe that it hadn't stopped her.

"You better get him back down to the infirmary. I'll go with you. I've heard this story before." She turned to Anita. "Hey I've got to go."

"Okay, I'll go find Rodney. Bye!" Danielle shook her head as she watched her lovesick friend walk out of the lunchroom. Danielle caught up with Ronan a few seconds later. They walked in silence to the infirmary. When they finally got there Carson was outraged.

"What the bloody hell did you do to him?"

"I shot him." Ronan answered, as if it were an everyday occurrence.

"Why in the world would you do that?" He looked at the huge man like he was insane.

"Anita was on a rant about Rodney and we had a bet."

"Oh." Carson understood. He had been subject to one of these just a week before.

"Gates and I thought that it would shut her up and Danielle didn't. We bet for Jell-O."

"Who won?"

"I did!" Danielle said in a sing-song voice.

"Well, congratulations. Next time find a better way to settle your bets."

"Will do Carson." Danielle left the infirmary to prepare her things for the mission she was leaving for tomorrow.

A/N: So what do you think? Please review!


	25. Chapter 25

Danielle started at the natives. So far the had been nothing but hospitable. They were a kind people it seemed. They had met the team at the gate and invited them back to their village for a feast.

She had to admit it was a slightly boring trip. She was the only woman on her team and she didn't have anyone she really knew to joke around with. She'd been on missions with this team a few times, but they still didn't get that she was a woman and didn't appreciate most of the talk. They had been to this planet before she had joined the team, so they knew most of the people. They introduced her to the chief of the village, Zumak.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." He kissed her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you also. Tell me about the alter your followers have told me so much about."

"It's a place of miracles. When the Wraith arrive for the culling, it shoots fire from the ground. It destroys the ships and the Wraith never come. I will show it to you if you wish." He gestured toward a path that went through the woods.

"Yes, thank you. That would be wonderful!" So they sat out toward the alter. Two members of her team had accompanied them along with two of his warriors. It was a short walk from the village and didn't take very long.

Danielle smiled as they reached the alter. It was another one of the Ancient's control chairs. She bent down and touched the base. She couldn't help but to break out into laughter as she discovered that it had not one, but three working ZPMs. Zumak was looking at her like she was insane. Her teammates came over to see what she was laughing about. Once they saw what it was that began to laugh too.

"Do you think that it's possible we could take one without harming their defense system?" Lt. Jones asked.

"I think so, if we just took one. The bigger question is how do we get them to give it up?" Danielle looked over at Zumak and smiled. He was a nice man; he probably didn't even know what it was for.

"Zumak, do you know what this is?" Danielle pulled one of them up and showed it to him.

"Yes, I believe that it powers the altar's fire. Is it safe to take it out?" he looked slightly panicked.

"It's safe. You have two more of these that will power it for centuries to come. You see Zumak, not only do these objects power your fire; they power the city we come from. We are in need of one, ours is about to give out and we will be without the power we depend on." He gave her words careful thought. It seemed like eternity before he answered.

"We will return to the feast and I will think of a fair trade for it." With this, he turned and started to walk back to the village. Danielle shrugged and put the ZPM in her pack. They followed Zumak back to the feast in excitement.

They ate silently, each of them anticipating Zumak's decision. At the end of the meal, Zumak stood and announced that he and his guests were going to his council house to discuss some trading matters.

Danielle observed the village as they walked through it. It wasn't primitive. In fact, they had nice log houses. They even had wells, and gardens. It was looked like America did when it was at the beginning of settlement. It was very peaceful. They arrived at big house at the head of the village.

"Come in and we will discuss this." He opened the door. When they started to walk through the door he added, "Only Doctor Summers. She is, after all, the one who proposed this trade." She gave her teammates a look that said 'It's alright. I'll handle it.'

"We'll be just outside. Radio if you need us." Lt. Jones gestured toward a bench that sat about five feet from the door.

"Will do Lieutenant." She walked past Zumak and into the meetinghouse. Once the door was closed, he gestured toward two chairs at the head of the long table that sat in the middle of the room. She sat down, placing the bag that held the ZPM beside of her.

"So, have you come to a decision?"

"I need you to explain what you need this for again. Just to be sure that the trade will be fair." She smiled, but groaned inwardly.

"It powers the city we live in, just like it powers your Wraith defense system. Which reminds me, who makes it shoot fire from the ground?" It had occurred to her before, but she never got a clear answer from the villagers.

"I do. That is why I am the chief. The power to run the chair runs in the blood of my family." He seemed very proud of that fact. But, hey, who wouldn't?

"I see. What do you have in mind for trade?"

"Well, I am well into my years. I need to start a family. I have a woman in mind."

"Well," She was lost. What did he expect them to do, threaten the girl into marrying him? "I don't know how we can help you with this."

"You see, Doctor, it is fairly simple. You people need this power device and I need a wife." She was starting to understand, but she didn't like where it was going.

"I don't think I understand."

"I will trade the power device to your people for you as my bride." _What the hell? Did he honestly think that she would say yes?_

"I don't think you understand. We don't trade people."

"It is a fair trade."

"How?" She could not believe this man.

"Your people depend on this device for power. My people depend on me getting a wife to bare my children, so there will be another generation after me that can control the fire. It is fair."

"Why can't you have one of the women in the village to bare your children? I'm sure they would be honored." This was crazy. Obviously, the man couldn't get a girl and was trying to find the easy way out of it.

"They are not worthy of such an honor. A woman from another world, however, is much better." No wonder he couldn't get a girl. He was ugly AND conceded.

"My people don't trade humans. Do you have another suggestion? Possibly some food or maybe we could lend a hand in making your village bigger?" she hoped he would find these offers good. They really needed that ZPM.

"No. I will only trade for you."

"Then our discussion is over." She stood up a readied herself to leave. She decided to radio Jones. "Jones? He didn't come up with an acceptable trade. I think we should get back and try to get Weir to contact them with another offer."

"Okay, we're waiting for you out here."

"I'm on my-"she was cut off by a knife coming up to her throat.

"You will not be going anywhere. You will stay and be my wife and your team can do what they will with the power device or you will die and they will not get the device. You take you pick." _Hmmm…die or live a life of hell. _

The decision wasn't very hard to make. She took her elbow and hit him hard in the stomach. It caused him to double over slightly, but he loosened his grip. She ran for it, but she never made it to the door. He grabbed her and held her tight. She struggled against his grip, but couldn't get out.

"You have made your choice." He sunk the knife into her side. Danielle let out a cry. He let her fall to the ground. Then he put the latch down on the door. She watched as he pulled out a chair in front of her.

"You made your choice, now I will watch you die." She could hardly move. She reached up to grab her radio, only to have him take it from her vest before she could reach it.

"Bastard."

"Maybe, but you'll never be able to tell anyone, will you?" He gave a cold, harsh laugh. Looking down at her wound, Danielle realized that he was probably right. She was bleeding heavily, a big pool had already formed on the floor. If her team didn't get to her soon she was going to die.

A/N: CLIFFIE! HAHAHA! What do you think? Review and tell me! I know, the three ZPM thing is a little unrealistic, but it makes for a good read.


	26. Chapter 26

"You will not be going anywhere. You will stay and be my wife and your team can do what they will with the power device or you will die and they will not get the device. You take you pick."

Jones looked at the radio in horror. Danielle had not let off the button. Not a second later, they heard a commotion from inside of the building and a cry. They raced for the door, but arrived too late. Zumak had already latched it.

"Evans, go and open the gate. Keep it open." Lt. David Evans nodded his head and took off at a sprint. "Everybody else, lets start busting it open." They followed their orders.

Danielle had never heard a more wonderful sound that the sound of that door busting open. She looked up to see Jones grab Zumak and knock him out. The other team member of the team, Dr. Brian Green, rushed to her side.

"Are you okay?" She started to laugh but stopped when she felt the searing pain in her side.

"Peachy. You?" He laughed and sat her up.

"Can you stand up?"

"Not on my own. I can hardly move." He looked down at her wound and cringed. The cut was deep. Really deep.

"Jones, come help me." He obliged and they pulled her to her feet. One arm was across Brian's shoulders while the other was across Jones's. She was light headed but decided that it was not the time to pass out.

"Grab my bag please." Brian grabbed it and they began the walk back to the gate. When they finally reached it, they were happy to see that Evans was holding the gate open.

.Danielle was beyond light headed when they finally arrived. She couldn't see very well. It was all blurs and distant noises.

"Medical team to the gate room!" Weir voice announced over the intercom. She then rushed down to the team in front of the gate.

"What happened!"

"We found a ZPM and tried to trade for it. Since Danielle made the offer, she had to make the deal while we waited outside. She came over the radio and said that he couldn't make an acceptable offer and then we heard him say that she would stay and be his wife or she would die. We didn't get there in time to stop it, he had locked the door."

Before Weir could ask any more questions, the medical team arrived. They got Danielle on a stretcher and began the trip back to the Infirmary. Danielle recognized one of the distant voices that were shouting orders.

"Carson?" She whispered.

"I'm here. Just hold on, we're almost there." Danielle smiled. She was safe. With this thought, she slipped into unconsciousness.

Carson sat at her bedside looking at her. She had lost a lot of blood from the gash. It was two days later and she still had not woken up. Despite being a doctor (you know, always think positive) he was beginning to worry.

It was late and the silence in the Infirmary was only adding to his dread. He looked at the monitor and sighed. Her vitals had not changed any. _What if… What if I never get to tell her?_ He decided that this was not going to happen; he was going to tell her, even if she was still unconscious.

Danielle on the other hand, was bored. She could hear everything that was going on around her, but couldn't move. It had taken her awhile before she realized that they could not hear her screaming, telling them that she was still there. It had been hours since she had heard anybody talking, only the sound of paper shuffling, a sigh, or someone shifting in his or her seat.

"Danielle, I have something to tell you." Hah, so it was Carson.

_I'm all ears._

"I've been meaning to tell you for a while now."

_Well, now's as good a time as ever._

"You see Danielle; I am the one who has been sending you those letters."

_………WHAT? _It was CarsonCarson Beckett. She couldn't wrap her head around it. It was Carson. He was once again silent, which gave her time to think about it. She liked Carson. He was one of her better friends. But, did she like him like THAT?

_Yes._

She did. She always had. When he hadn't shown that kind of interest in her, she had given up. Putting her affections toward her secret admirer instead. Ironic, he was her secret admirer. She was brought out of her thoughts when he started talking again.

"I wonder if you'd like me. I remember when we talked about what you'd do when you discovered who it was. Would you still give me a chance?"

_Sure would._

"I really like you Danielle. Sounds weird actually saying it to you, knowing that you can't hear me."

_Or so it seems!_

"I wonder if I'll ever get the courage to tell you when you're awake."

_Well, if you don't, I'll just jump you. How does that sound?_

"I guess I'll just have to wait until you wake up." He leaned forward and took hold of her hand.

_That's nice, really nice. WAKE UP! WAKE UP NOW! DANIELLE AURORA SUMMERS WAKE UP!_

It didn't work. The rest of the night passed in silence. Well, Carson was silent. He actually fell asleep in his chair, still holding her hand. Danielle, however, had stopped yelling and had continued to think about the turn of events. She finally fell asleep about an hour after Carson.

Danielle awoke the next morning, confused. She looked over to where Carson had been before, only to find that he was not there. Then it hit her. She was AWAKE! She smiled, remembering what Carson had told her the night before. She stayed that way a moment before a thought hit her. _What if it was a dream? What if it never happened?_ At that moment, Carson walked over to her.

"Danielle! You're awake!" He seemed relieved.

"Yep, sure am." She remembered the events that had put her in there in the first place. "Hey, do you know if they got my backpack?"

"Aye, they did. It's next to your bed." She went to get it, but he got there before she did. "There will be no moving for a few days. What do you need from here?"

"Well, first I need to know if they opened it?"

"No, it was brought in just after you were; David thought that you would want it when you awoke." He sat the bag down on the bed beside of her.

"Can you open it and take out what's inside? Please?"

"Sure." He opened it and a shocked looked came over his face. He lifted the ZPM from its resting place. "How did you get this?"

"Zumak didn't know that I put it in the bag before the meeting. It works."

"This is incredible. I'll page Doctor Weir." Danielle spent the rest of the day telling her story and resting. For a woman who had been out for almost three days, she was tired. Before she fell asleep, however, Danielle decided that she would confront Carson when she could walk.

Danielle got out three days later. Carson felt that her stitches would hold if she wanted to leave.

Anita and Genna had visited her several times during her stay in the Infirmary. She couldn't tell them of her plan or even what had happened because Carson could've overheard. She needed the day to perfect the plan, so she decided that she would tell them the next morning.

Night finally arrived; it was time. Danielle knocked on the door to Carson's office.

"Come in. Oh, hello Danielle. Is everything alright?" He was standing in front of his desk.

"Yes, everything's fine. I wanted to tell you something." She stepped inside of the room, closing the door behind her.

"Really? What?"

"I wanted to tell you before, but I was afraid that I was going crazy. You see, when I was unconscious, I could hear everything that went on." _Oh shit._ He tensed up. That was a good sign.

"Really? That's odd. Why do you think that?"

"I remember yelling, but you couldn't hear me. Nobody could. I couldn't see anything, but I could still hear. Just tell me, did Patty crack a joke the first night I was here about Cavanaugh and Jean?" _Oh holy shit._

"Y-yes she did." Danielle had been walking toward him while she was talking and now stood around four steps away.

"So, it wasn't a dream?" he shook his head. "Okay." She took another step forward. "Then did you…" Another step. "Did that really happen?"

"Did what really happen?" His brain had stopped working three steps ago.

"Did you really say that… that you…" She couldn't finish the sentence, but took another step forward.

Carson couldn't answer. Hell, he couldn't breathe. He finally managed to nod his head.

"I thought so." She took a final step forward, closing the gap between them, and kissed him. He lost all coherent thought. He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her closer. She wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. After a minute or so of this, he pulled away.

"That was one hell of a chance." She just giggled and pulled him back to her. He was in heaven. He had hoped that she would give him a chance once she found out, but he never expected this. He couldn't think of a better way for it to happen.

As she lay in bed that night, Danielle realized it. Her life was falling into place, just as Anita's and Genna's had begun to do. Then she realized that she would have a story to tell them in the morning. She smiled and groaned at this thought. She would have a story to tell, but with a story came a million questions. Oh well, at least she had gotten her man.

A/N: Whatcha think? Review and tell me! I still have a few more chapters up my sleeve so don't give up on the story so soon!** POLL:** Who is your favorite Atlantis man?


	27. Chapter 27

"He said WHAT?" "You did WHAT?" "You RAPED Carson?" Danielle smiled at her friends' reactions. They were all piled in the lab. Rodney had even been listening in on their conversation. Mostly due to the fact that he was glued to Anita.

"Honestly guys! Did you not listen to the story? Wait… I did NOT rape Carson, Rodney! Geez, we didn't go past second base I swear!"" Danielle threw a pen at Rodney, who ducked in response, causing it to hit Anita. Danielle giggled as Anita hit Rodney in the arm.

"Protecting me is part of the package! Not throwing me into harms way!" She gave him another smack in the arm before turning her attention back on Danielle. "So…it was Carson all along. Why didn't he say something?"

"I don't know. Come to think about it, besides you two he was the only other person that kept asking about it." She thought back to all of the times that they sat and talked… most of the time he had asked about her secret admirer.

"Now that we've got them…do you think we should show them?" Genna asked.

"Show us what?" Rodney asked, his interest growing with each second.

"We can't tell you." Anita smirked at his baffled look.

"Why the hell not? I think we deserve to know."

"I don't think we should show them just yet." Danielle reached down into her bag to get her laptop. "I do think, however, that we should get back to work. Anita, you have briefing with Weir in ten minutes and Genna's in right after that. You two need to go get ready."

"Fine. But we want more details tonight." Genna left to find the rest if her team, they had to give a report on their last mission. Anita sighed and stood up. Rodney walked her to the door, giving her a kiss before she left.

"GET A ROOM! This is a workplace, not a broom closet." Anita shot her a death glare as she left, Rodney doing the same as he sat down at his desk. He mumbled something she couldn't hear.

"What?"

"I said you're just jealous." Danielle burst into a fit of laughter.

"Dream on!" She opened her laptop and he laughter stopped. Inside laid an envelope. She cracked a huge grin when she read what it said.

_Danielle,_

_How about lunch? Meet you in the lunchroom at one._

_Love,_

_Carson_

She looked down at her watch. It was 12:30. Only thirty more minutes.

Danielle sat waiting at a table in the lunchroom. She was five minutes early. She had managed to badger Rodney to the point of insanity, so he all but jumped for joy when she asked to leave early. Suddenly, Anita sat down in front of her.

"Whatcha doing here?" Anita asked, taking a bite of her apple. Danielle handed her the note. Anita wiggled her eyebrows and handed it back.

"So…. How nervous are you on a scale of one to ten."

"Yeah, that's great moral support. Seven."

"You'll be fine I mean how – hey I'll see you later!" She jumped up and ran over to another table when John and Teyla sat. Danielle stood up to get a better view of her.

"What the hell?" she mouthed. Anita just giggled and pointed toward the door. Danielle looked at the door, to find that Carson had arrived.

"Hiya Carson!" He leaned forward and kissed her. Danielle's brain shut down. He pulled away and smiled. "That was one hell of a hello."

"GET A ROOM! This is a place to eat not a broom closet!" Anita yelled. Danielle just smiled. Payback, it sucks. "OKAY! Everyone who bid on Danielle come to this table please!" _Bid? What in the-. She did NOT! _

"ANITA JUNE McKLASKEY! You started a pool?"

Danielle ran over and smacked her in the arm.

"OUCH! I didn't start it. Rodney did. I'm just in for the ride." At that moment, Rodney walked up to the table. Danielle turned to hit him but he ducked behind Carson.

"I'll take it from here." He announced, running out of Danielle's reach Okay, we need an oral announcement from Danielle. So, who are you dating?" Before she could answer, Anita started to laugh.

"Like she needs to announce it. Half of Atlantis just saw them making out." Danielle shot her a death glare, but blushed all the same. Carson just smiled.

"I'm dating Carson Beckett." There were a few cheers and catcalls. This only made her blush harder.

"Okay. The winners of this bet are Genna Smith, Anita McKlaskey, and Rodney McKay. Yay. On to the second pool."

"There are TWO?"

"Three actually, but the last one has more to do with Carson." She felt like hiding in a hole. Carson laughed and grabbed her hand. This made her feel a little better.

"Right, back to business. Danielle, who was your secret admirer?" This made her smile. It still amazed her that it had been Carson.

"Carson." A few more catcalls and even a few sighs from the women.

"The winners are Anita McKlaskey and Genna Smith." There were a few cries of outrage from the crowd. "Sorry kids, those are the rules. Now for the third; Carson, when did you tell her how you felt."

"Well it was about five days ago." He looked over at her and smiled.

"Well…nobody saw that one coming. Okay…that's the end of these pools." Rodney turned around toward john and started talking as the crowd dispersed. He was acting like this was a normal occurrence. Danielle shook her head and looked at Carson, who was still smiling.

"Doesn't it weird you out the tiniest bit that we were the subject of more than one pool?"

"Only slightly. Compared to John and Genna though, we have it lucky." He lead her back over to their table and sat down.

"Good point. How many were there last time you counted."

"Hmmm… twelve I think. However, that was at least three weeks ago, there's probably more by now." Danielle chuckled. He was right. John being the most wanted man on Atlantis; there were several bets on how long he and Genna would last. Then again, there were several on how long it would be until he popped the question.

Carson and Danielle sat and talked the lunch hour away. Unfortunately, an hour is not really a long time, and before they knew it, it was time for them to go back to work. He walked her back to the lab.

"So…do you think you're available for a date tonight?" He actually looked worried.

"As if I could say no! When and where?" She felt as if she could just float right off of the floor. She was going on a date! _Wait…what am I going to wear?_

"Meet me back here in four hours." Suddenly, a page for him came over the intercom. "So, I'll see you then?"

"I can't wait!" He kissed her quick as a page for her came over the intercom. "See you." She walked into the lab with a smile on her face. Rodney became suspicious when she started to work. She didn't even complain!

"What's wrong with you?" he demanded. She looked up with a confused expression.

"What do you mean?"

"You're all spacey and quiet. You're smiling like a mad woman and you haven't complained. Did you get laid?" She about died as she heard his last words. She actually fell out of her chair, she was laughing so hard. "What? What are you laughing at? I'm serious!" She finally managed to calm down long enough to answer him.

"NO! I did not get laid! I cannot believe you would think that! I got a date!" He rolled his eyes and sighed.

"If you going out with Carson is going to make you like this I may have to suggest that you end it." She gave him a baffled look. Then smiled.

"HA! As if. You were worse when you first asked Anita out. You kept messing up the experiments. At least I am doing work!"

"Fine! You win." She grinned in triumph. Now…all she had to do was find a way to get Rodney to let her off early. She grin turned to an evil one as she realized the perfect thing. She reached up and opened her locket.

It took thirty minutes of "Beautiful Dreamer" before Rodney kicked her out of the lab. Now she had to find Genna and Anita to help her get ready.

A/N: Sorry for the delay! My B-Day was on the 12th and I decided to take the weekend off writing. So….what do you think? Review and tell me.


	28. Chapter 28

Once Danielle had found her friends, they made their way to her room. As soon as they entered, Danielle ran for the closet. She began to search frantically, before turning back to her friends.

"I don't know what to wear! I don't even know where we're going!" She sat on the end of her bed and stared at the closet.

"Oh! Can I go ask?" Genna begged. She wanted to get as far away from the freaked out Danielle as possible. She left the room and made her way toward the infirmary. She found Carson patching up a cut on Ben's arm.

"Carson?" He turned toward her.

"Oh! Hello Genna. What do you need?"

"I need to know where you are taking Danielle tonight." He gave her a confused look.

"Can't you wait until she tells you tomorrow? I don't want to ruin the surprise." He nodded to Ben, signaling that he could leave.

"I won't tell her I swear. I need to know so we can help her pick out an outfit. She was in mid-freak out when I left." He sighed and told her. She thanked him and rushed back to Danielle's room.

When she arrived, she found that Danielle was in the shower. This was a perfect time to tell Anita, so they could decide on an outfit. When Danielle finally emerged from the shower, they had narrowed down the search to five outfits.

"Well, that didn't take long. Let's see. Most of them have skirts." She looked over them. Two of them were dresses she had traded for off world, another one was a skirt and shirt she had also traded for, the last one was a pair of shorts and a pink top.

"Which reminds me; how did you get these?" Genna pointed to the dresses and the skirt.

"I traded the water in my canteen and a power bar for them. The city was in their dry season. I also got these." She went over to her dresser and picked up a hairpin that had what looked like a butterfly ornament on it. After that, she went to her closet and pulled out a pair of white sandals.

"Pretty! I want to see." Genna and Anita looked at the pin while Danielle mulled over the dresses.

"I still don't know you guys. I'm thinking the lavender dress or the skirt. What do you think?"

"Well, with the sandals, I think you should go with the dress. Go try it on." Danielle did as she was told. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she decided that it was perfect. The dress had short sleeves and went to just above her knees. She curled her hair and used the butterfly hairpin to hold it back from her face. She was ready for her date.

Carson waited by the door to the lab. Danielle was five minutes late. He jumped as he heard a crash from inside of the lab. Deciding that this, on top of all of the yelling he had been hearing, was a reason to check it out.

"What are you talking about Rodney? I have a DATE! I need to go NOW!" Danielle yelled.

"You aren't going anywhere. We are too close."

"What the hell Rodney?" Anita looked at him in surprise. "She has a date with Carson."

"Yeah, Rodney! We all came down here to tease her as they left. How can we do that if you won't let her leave!" Genna pouted. John, who had come along with Genna, nodded his head in agreement. Carson watched all of this in silence. Nobody noticed as he walked farther into the room.

"You three are acting like a bunch of teenagers! You can reschedule the date! This is way too important! I'm activating it…Now!" He pushed a sequence of buttons.

Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light. As soon as Carson regained his sight, he realized something was wrong. Anita, Danielle, and Genna were no longer where they were standing. Instead, three teenage girls stood in their places.

The one on the far left was gothic, black, hair, clothes, the works. The one in the middle looked like your typical teenager, except the ends of her blonde hair were dyed neon pink. The last one also looked like a typical teenager, but with brown hair, the ends dyes blue. they all stood, stunned. The gothic one was the first to speak.

"THE HELL?"

"You said it. This wasn't supposed to happen." Rodney muttered under his breath.

"What was supposed to happen?" John asked.

"I don't know! I just know that it wasn't this!" He gave a curious look at the trio. The pink haired one was poking the gothic one and giggling. The gothic one smacked her hand away and pointed toward the door. Rodney followed her gesture, only to find that Carson had entered the room sometime during this.

"We should take them to see Elizabeth." Carson said stepping into the room.

"Guys, I think I'm asleep in history again!" the one with the pink hair muttered.

"Typical you…brining your book bag. Besides, last I remember we were walking out of history." The brown haired one looked around. "Hmm…where are we?"

"GENNA!" The gothic one reached over and smacked her on the head.

"Well…I mean I KNOW where we are. Just wondering what part we're in." she hit the other one back. The shout from the gothic one only confirmed Rodney's fears. He had somehow turned the girls back into their teenage selves.

"Yeah…let's get them to Weir. Umm…Girls, could you follow us please?" they looked at him, mildly surprised, but followed him anyway.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Weir yelled, looking over at the now younger girls.

"I was thinking that the device could be very useful. It wasn't supposed to do this!" Rodney looked over at the girls. Danielle was once again poking Anita. Elizabeth shook her head and turned to the girls.

"Do you know where you are?"

"Yep. We're in history class dreaming that we're on Atlantis." Danielle answered, almost in a dreamy way. "It's not the first time. It would be easier if we had ended up in the spot where the last one left off."

"Where would that be?" Rodney mocked.

"Well…you and Anita were in a broo- OUCH! ANITA! That hurt!" she rubbed the spot on her arm that Anita had punched. Carson let a chuckle, guessing what Danielle was going to say.

"Enough questioning." Weir said, sitting down in her chair. "Rodney, for being so careless during an experiment, you, John and Carson included, will each have to watch over one of the girls. John, you take Genna. Rodney, you take Anita. Carson, you look after Danielle. Just make sure that they don't get into trouble. You guys better get back to work. Have fun!" As they walked out of her office, Elizabeth couldn't help but wonder how crazy the girls would drive Atlantis. Well….she'd find out soon enough.

A/N: So…whatdoya think? Review and tell me.


	29. Chapter 29

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my original characters!

Rodney had been watching Anita over his laptop for about thirty minutes. She was so different but yet the same. She reached into her purse and pulled out a thin, black pencil.

"What's that?" She looked at him as if he was moronic.

"It's my eyeliner. I need to put more on." He nodded his head and looked back down at the laptop. He couldn't think of anything to say.

"So…you're Gothic." She gave him that look again and rolled her eyes.

"We've been sitting here for half an hour and you just noticed? And here I thought you were the genius."

"Well excuse me for trying to find something to talk about!" She just smiled.

"Finally! You're acting normal! You were beginning to scare me there." He gave her a baffled look as she put the eyeliner back in her purse and pulled out a CD player.

"How much stuff do you have in there? I don't even see how that could fit in there."

"I have tons of stuff in here. CDs, makeup, wallet, you know, the basics. Hey, where's the bathroom?" He pointed toward a door at the back of the room. "Thanks."

Once the door closed on the bathroom, Rodney made his way over to her purse. He figured that this was his girlfriend (in one form or another) and that he might find something in there that he could hang over her head once she was back to normal. She had several CDs: HIM and god only knows what else. Just about all of her makeup was black or gray. _Duh, she's Goth._ He pulled out her wallet and opened it. He stood there a moment, stunned. Inside, where her ID was supposed to go, was a picture of him.

"WHAT are you doing?" He turned around to an angry looking Anita. She then saw what he had in his hand. "NO! Don't look in that!" She ran over and tried to grab it from him but he held it over her head." The hell McKay? That's my personal stuff and I want it back! NOW!"

"So what? You're some kind of stalker?"

"NO! It's not you!"

"Sure the hell looks like me!"

"Well, it's not! It's David Hewlett!" This caught him off guard. He lowered his arm slightly. That was her opening. She reached up and grabbed it from him. Shoving it in her purse, she sat down in a chair and glared at him.

"Sorry! That, by the way, is creepy." He sat down across from her.

"Hey, I'm not the only one. I'm sure there are many people with pictures of you or David, how ever you want to take that. You should see Genna's purse." At that moment, said person and her "guardian" walked into the lab.

Anita looked over at Rodney. "Never mind what I said. I didn't mean it." He just got this wicked grin and stood up. Anita turned to Genna. "GENNA! Don't give him your purse! What ever you do don't give him your purse!"

"I left it in John's room." With that Rodney sprinted out of the lab.

"Follow him if you wish to keep an ounce of dignity in you." They followed closely behind Rodney, but he shut the door to John's room before they reached it.

"What is going on?" John asked as he caught up.

"He's going to get into your purse and get it! John, open the door!" He did as he was told but they were too late. There beside of John's dresser, stood Rodney, holding a picture. They rushed over to him.

"Who's this?" He handed Genna the picture.

"That's my brother. What's all this about?"

"Well…Rodney here decided to snoop in my wallet while I was in the bathroom." Genna made a silent 'OH' with her mouth. "Yeah and he found it. I guess he thought he would find a picture in your purse too."

"Wait. Who did you have a picture of?" John asked.

"David Hewlett." "ME!" They answered at the same time. John just cracked an evil grin.

"Okay. Enough drama. I say we go down and check on Danielle and Carson. She has probably bored him out of his mind by now." Genna pointed toward the door. They all agreed and began to make their way out of the room.

"Wait!" Genna said running back to her purse. "I need to put more lip gloss on. Anita you have a smudge." Anita went over to her. Genna pulled out a compact mirror. It had two mirrors in it. She opened it and grinned. Taped over the normal view mirror was her picture of John. Anita grinned when she received the mirror. Once the girls were finished, the made their way toward the infirmary.

"Hey Carson guess what? One time –"

"At band camp?" Ben asked hopefully from the bed he was sitting on. His wound had reopened and Carson had to fix it. He, unlike Carson, found the current situation hilarious.

"No! I didn't go to band camp. I quit right before they went. I had lots of fun in the band though. But anyway, one time in my seventh grade geography class, we were talking about some river in…." Carson tuned Danielle out at this point. About ten minutes earlier he had given her a bar of chocolate and he suspected that it had caused her current state. She was talking a hundred miles and hour and could hardly sit still. He watched as she bounced up and down on the bed across from Ben's as she told her story.

"Then he said 'That's what you call Holy Crap!'" Danielle burst into a fit of laughter and Ben with her. "OH! OH! You will never guess what we did! We figured out how to play the Stargate Atlantis theme song on the piano and we did it the Variety show! OH! OH! One time-"

"BECKETT! What in the hell did you do to her?" Anita looked at him; her arms crossed and foot tapping.

"I didn't do anything! She's been like this for about ten or fifteen minutes!" He gestured toward Danielle with a helpless look.

"Did you give her chocolate?" Genna asked taking a seat beside of Danielle. Anita walked over and took the seat on the other side.

"Well…yes. But I didn't know she'd go crazy on me."

"Now you know. It will take about thirty more minutes for the sugar rush to end, less if it was a small bar." Anita noticed Rodney inching toward them but didn't think anything of it.

"What do we do till then?" John whined. He didn't like to be in the infirmary when he had to be there, and even less when he didn't.

"Well, I tried to get some information out of Danielle, but I had given her the chocolate already."

"Let me guess. Everything you said reminded her of a story. So then she told you about it, but something in it reminded her of something else so she had to tell you that too. The process is never ending."

"Well, I do believe you're done Captain. You'd better go." Ben had been watching the trio on the bed across from him with interest. They seemed the same, but just looked different. If one of them were to start a tickle fight, they'd be just like they were that morning he gave Danielle that file. He nodded a goodbye and left the couples to figure it out.

"Okay, for starters, how old are you three?" Rodney took the spot where Ben had been sitting, john right beside of him.

"Well, Genna and I are fifteen and Danielle's going to be fifteen in a week."

"So, you guys are going to be sophomores."

"Yes. Our last day of school is in a week. I plan on video taping the whole thing. We're going to the new high school next year." Danielle announced as she failed to push Genna off of the bed.

"New high school? Are you guys moving?" Rodney realized what they were talking about, after all they all had watched the video when the box showed up. But they had to play it like they didn't know any better.

"No, all of the schools in our county are consolidating. It sucks." Anita slapped Danielle's hand as she tried to poke her in the side. Danielle slapped her leg in response. Anita gave her a weird look. Danielle just held up her hands and replied, "Did you see that little man?"

"Georgie! I forgot about him!" Genna collapsed in laughter. The men looked at each other in confusion. They didn't have the foggiest idea who Georgie was and probably never would. The watched as Anita slowly gave in and laughed with the other two.

"As toughing as this moment is, we should probably relocate. I know for a fact that you have the rest of the night off Carson, so I say we all go and RODNEY what are you doing?" Rodney had jumped suddenly for the bed and rushed toward the girls. He stooped down beside of the bed and came up with a bag.

"RODNEY! Get out of there!" Danielle yelled as he began to snoop through it. He took it and ran to another part of the infirmary, with Danielle hot on his heels. The others followed, slightly slower. Danielle caught up with him, but he had already found what he was looking for.

"AHHA…what the hell is this?" He held up a picture of Daniel Jackson. Anita caught up just in time to hear what he said. She burst into laughter at his shocked look. The others walked up behind her in confusion.

"Well…if you must know they didn't have a decent picture of Carson. I got a great one of Daniel in THE sweater instead. Can I have it back now?" He shook his head and handed it and her bag back. He went to walk around her but got a swift smack in the arm. This only made Anita laugh harder.

"Anita dear, you are running your Goth look with all of this laughing." Danielle muttered. It only succeeded in making everyone else laugh.

"Don't worry too much about it Danny. He found my picture of David."

"Who?" Anita smacked her in the arm.

"David Hewlett!"

"Why couldn't you just say Rodney?"

"It's NOT Rodney! It's DAVID!" She looked at everybody in the group, the majority of them were looking at her in amusement.

"You keep telling yourself that." Danielle said pulling her arm as they sat out to find a new place to talk. Genna let out a cough that sounded an awful lot like 'Denial'. Anita gave her THE glare but Genna just grinned in return. Anita reached out and linked her arms with Danielle's right arm and Genna's left. They got the signal and began to do their 'walk' down the hallway. Crossing their right legs over the next person's left. Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

A/N: SO sorry it took me so long to update! School just started and it had been very hectic. I hope you like this chapter! Please review and tell me what you think! Thanks!


	30. Chapter 30

"So…you have the hotts for Dr. Jackson huh?" John winced as he received a slap as an answer.

"It's the glasses. She seems to have a thing for glasses." Anita managed to dodge the blow aimed in her direction, ducking behind Rodney. Danielle gave him a look and took another swing. He moved to the right and it hit Anita instead.

"Hey Rodney, you brought me here and you're my guardian. Protecting me is part of the package! Not throwing me into harms way!" Rodney stopped walking. He suddenly remembered another day he had heard her say that last line. She was the same, more than anyone could see.

"I think we should go to the lab.' Carson suggested. "That way Rodney can work on a way to get you guys back." Danielle gave him a sad look. Genna noticed.

"So you don't want us here?" Genna asked, giving a slightly mean stare.

"That's not what I meant. It's just…you girls were in school when you came here. I'm sure you're missing something important."

"Hardly. Danielle's great at science and math, I'm good with history, and Genna's pretty much got it all covered. We don't need school, it's SO overrated. Hey, Rodney? Are we going the wrong way?" John looked around. She was right; they were going the wrong way.

"No, I've got to make a pit stop at a room; I left some notes I might need there." It wasn't until they reached the room in question that John knew what he was talking about. It was Anita's room.

Rodney walked in and the rest followed him. While Rodney shuffled through the desk, John watched him in annoyance. Why did he bring them here? It was stupidity on his part. Rodney suddenly yelled, "Got it!" starling John from his thoughts. Rodney spun around and in the process knocked a box off of the desk.

"Here let me help." Anita offered, stooping down to pick up the contents of the box. Genna and Danielle followed suit. It wasn't until Anita sat still looking at a piece of paper, did he realize that the box looked familiar for a reason. It wasn't a piece of paper she was holding, it was a picture.

"What's that Anita?" Danielle asked, looking over Anita's shoulder. Slowly, she took it out of Anita's hands and handed it to a quizzical Genna. Rodney watched all this in mild horror.

"The hell?" Anita reached down and picked up a few more pictures, the look of disbelief and confusion growing with each one.

"It's not what it looks like." Rodney finally exclaimed, throwing a few more pictures into the box.

"What is all of this?" Genna looked up at John for the answer. He looked over at Rodney, then Carson. They just nodded their heads.

"Well, it's long story. Let's take the box back to the lab so we can explain while Rodney works." They just nodded in agreement, and followed the men out of the room.

They looked at the pictures in amazement. There were ones from their past and some from their futures. John had just finished telling them what had happened. He left out the part that they were all dating.

"What's this one?" Danielle asked her friends in excitement, holding up a video. They just shook their heads. She popped into the video player Rodney had rigged up for them. It was of their last day of school.

_' **"So here we are, the last Freshman class of Yeager High. It's our last day; half of us are already gone. Thankfully the best of the best showed up." Anita scanned the hallway where everybody hung out in the mornings, settling on her friends. Genna, Danielle, and a few other girls waved and blew kisses at the camera.**_

The video continued going through all of their classes. Finally they reached the end.

**_ '"Take a look girls. These are our final moments as students here. We will go on to the new school to patronize other people, but it won't be the same. These are our last moments as Bobcats." As she scanned the front lawn, with everyone milling about, the bell rang from inside. "Well, that's it." The camera looked over at Genna and Danielle. They were looking a t the building, silently praying that it was all a joke, that they'd come back on August 26th. But nobody jumped out and yelled "Gotcha!" With a look at each other, the three set off to the buses._**

Danielle was looking at the video in shock. Was it really going to happen that way? That was a week away. It was weird, knowing that it was going to happen that way. She looked over at her friends, seeing that they were having a similar reaction. She jerked the video out of the player and stuck in another one. Rodney announced that the device was almost ready. They would be back to normal in a matter of minutes.

**_"Danielle, tell the camera what you plan on being when you get out of school?" Anita said behind the camera._**

_**"I plan on going to more school. I'm going to get a PhD in Astrophysics. I'm going to go to Yale and prove my dad wrong."**_

_**"Genna?"**_

_**"I'm going to be a Paleontologist. Don't know where I'm going, but I'm gonna do great. How about you Anita." she took the camera and aimed it at her.**_

_**"Well and Archeologist obviously. Then I'm going to get recognized but the U.S. Air Force, sent to Cheyenne Mountain to work with Daniel, date Skaara, refer both of you to the program and live happily ever after. The End." They all laughed until their sides hurt. Danielle actually fell off of the bed she was sitting on.**_

_**"Amen" she said picking herself up off of the floor.**_

_**"What if we don't end up at the SGC, what if we end up on Atlantis? What would you do then?"**_

**_"That obvious. I would be the most kick as Archeologist there. We'd get there, I'd discover an ancient outpost and get ten ZPMs, I'd marry Rodney McKay and live happily ever after!" Anita took the camera and aimed it at Genna._**

_**"Okay Genna. How about you? What will you do if you end up on Atlantis?"**_

_**"Duh. I'd be a paleontologist or something they might need. I'd be the best a t whatever I do. I'd do just about the same as you, except I'd marry John. Danielle's turn!" The camera zoomed in on Danielle.**_

**_"Well. I'd be the best astrophysicist there." At this there was a little cough from behind the camera. "Sorry, I mean the second best, the best FEMALE astrophysicist there. I'd marry Carson. Happily ever after, the end." The three of them burst into a fit of laughter. _**Then the tape switched to them cutting a cake.

****"Three, two, one!" Rodney hit the button before anyone got the chance to ask questions about the tape. They were again blinded by a flash of light. The trio was back to normal and sat, rather dazed, in front of the video player. "It worked!" Rodney rushed over to Anita and began to explain.

"Wait! I remember everything! I remember the chocolate, and the picture, and the tape-" With that they all looked toward the video tape. John jumped forward and replayed it before any protests were made. The girls watched in horror the secret that had finally been revealed.

"Pretty intense for a first date don't you think?" Carson muttered, watching Danielle hide her face in her arms. The rest of the group burst into a fit of laughter.

It was later, sitting on the pier, having her date with Carson (FINALLY!) that Danielle realized that she didn't miss the life she had before. She was perfectly content with what she had on Atlantis. She had a great job, a wonderful guy she could have a future with, and her best friends in the world. This is what she had always wanted. She would never, for a second, go back to what she had before.

A/N: Well…what do you think? Review and tell me! I only have the epilogue left, sadly. Thank you SO much for sticking it out with me!


	31. Chapter 31

What in the hell was that incessant beeping noise? Danielle groaned and sat up. She had work to do that couldn't wait. She hit the alarm clock on the night stand with a sigh. _Wait, the alarm clock? I don't have an alarm clock_.

For the first time that morning she took in her surrounding. She wasn't in her room. Well, it was her room, but it wasn't on Atlantis. It was back on Earth. Jumping up out of bed in alarm, she ran across the hall into the guest room. She went over to the nearest lump and shook it violently.

"ANITA! ANITA WAKE UP!" She received a shove in response. Danielle reached down and jerked the covers off of her. That woke Anita up.

"THE HELL DANIELLE? I don't have to got to work until one! It's-"she looked up at the clock. "9:30. What's wrong?"

"Why are we here?"

"Ummm… you live here and Genna and I are staying. What are you going on about?" It hit Danielle then. She sat down on the end of the bed and put her face in her hands.

"I had the most wonderful dream. We were on Atlantis…"

Danielle awoke with a start. Looking around wildly, she spotted the man lying next to her and smiled. It had been a dream. A bad dream.

She reached over and planted a kiss on her husband's forehead. It was three and a half years to the day since their first date, around two since their wedding. She got up out of bed, taking a second to balance the weight of her huge stomach. Walking over to the dresser, she looked at all of the pictures on it. There was one of Anita and Rodney's wedding and one of Genna and John's, as well as her own.

Anita, they found out later had been pregnant at her wedding. Two months to be exact. Danielle smiled as she remembered the day she found out.

_Danielle opened her bedroom door to find an angry Anita banging on it._

"_What's up?" Anita didn't answer; she just stormed into the room and started pacing._

"_I'm going to kill him!" She finally yelled._

"_Who?" Danielle was confused; she hadn't seen Anita this angry in years._

"_Rodney! He did this to me! I'll kill him!" She pretended she was wringing his neck._

"_What did he do this time?" _

"_Something that is unforgivable!"_

"_WHAT?" Danielle yelled shaking her._

"_He got me pregnant." Anita laughed. Danielle just stood there, not getting the joke. When she finally did, she started jumping around and hugging Anita._

Seven months and some odd days later, she gave birth to a boy, Garrett Rodney. Now, even at a young age, he was terrorizing anybody who volunteered to baby-sit him. Anita was currently pregnant again with another boy and was due around the same time as Danielle. The ultrasound revealed that it was to be another boy, Westley Vincent. There was one a picture of Anita and her new family next to the wedding one.

Genna was second to get married, second to get pregnant, and was due any day now. It was a girl, to be named Angelique Rae. It took them a while to get pregnant because of their off-world duties, but it had finally happened. Apparently, they were going to have a huge family. As many kids as possible.

Danielle stared at the picture of her wedding day. It had been perfect. For all of the weddings, gowns were ordered from Earth and delivered by way of Deadalus. Hers was a big fluffy one. She turned her gaze to the newest addition to the pictures. It was the most recent ultrasound of her babies. That's right, babies as in more than one. Danielle and Carson were having twins. A boy and a girl; James Logan and Lilliana Rose.

As she sat looking over all of the pictures, ranging from pottery class to babies, Danielle suddenly got a page. Running (well, more like waddling) over to the night stand, she checked to see who was paging her at this hour. It was Genna. She reached over and shook Carson's shoulder.

"Hey, Genna's gone into labor. I'm going down there. Okay?" He mumbled something she couldn't understand. "What?"

"I'm coming with you." With that they rushed to the infirmary.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Genna was gripping the front of John's shirt and telling him exactly how she felt at the moment. Danielle was impressed; she didn't know that Genna had it in her. Watching Anita go into labor was funny, but watch Genna go was hilarious. She had refused to take the medication that had been shipped to Atlantis especially for this occasion.

"Okay Genna I need you to give me one more push." The doctor ordered.

"GO TO HELL!"

"Gladly, but first I need you to push!" Genna decided to be quiet and do as she was told. In a matter of minutes she was holding her beautiful daughter in her arms.

Danielle and Anita lay on either side of Genna, watching the beautiful baby sleep on Genna's chest. It seemed almost surreal; they had come to Atlantis by mistake, and ended up starting lives there. The machine that had brought them there lay forgotten in the lab storage room, gathering dust.

"Danielle, you and Anita are getting to huge to share my bed with me."

"HEY! I have a baby in there!" Anita whispered, as to not wake the baby.

"That counts double for me." Danielle giggled. This was a perfect moment. They lay there in the bed, same as they did on all of those nights they had sleepovers when they were young, and those nights they spent up gossiping on Atlantis.

It had finally fallen into place. They had their men, they had it all. Especially, after all of this time, they still had each other.

THE END

A/N: I want to thank all of you for reading my story. Thank you even more for reviewing if you did. I hope that you have enjoyed my fic. I also must thank my two wonderful friends, you know who you are wink wink you helped me through all of this will constant ideas and feedback. I LOVE U GUYS!


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